The Darkest Hours
by Pt35
Summary: Even after the end of the world war, danger still lurks. The dragonets of destiny find themselves in terrible danger as a certain old enemy rears her disfigured head. Now held at the mercy of a monster, how will they ever survive? WARNING: rated a very heavy T for violence and death! You have been warned
1. Chapter1

**Disclaimer: obviously WOF dosent belong to me. That's why it's called FanFiction, right?**

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**Please read!**

**Okay, this story was not originally intended to be read by anyone other than myself. The whole point of this story was to borrow characters to help me develop my writing without having to build new personalities. I don't write fanfiction, but this time I made an exception. In the process of working on this, I realized I was putting too much effort into this peice to have it go completely unread, so I decided to post it here, where someone may enjoy it. This story is being copied and pasted right off my documents, I haven't changed it at all from when I wrote it, aside from editing spelling mistakes. It is in original form, which includes an introduction that I wrote to myself at the beginning of the project for the fun of it. You can go ahead and skip that if you want.**

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Okay, so I need to practice showing emotions in my characters. My current characters are about as expressive as the average building brick, and their emotions seem to rival that of the average zombie. So, in order to work on this problem, I will be writing a very dark piece of fiction. I will use somebody else's characters and setting so I don't have to think up my own and instead can focus on the characters emotions. This piece will be unnecessarily dark, a little over the top with expression, and loaded with enough cringe to give my brother a seizure. But, it will be worth it in order to improve my writing and character development later on. Because let's face it, right now my characters have all the personality of a bulldozer. So, without further self bashing, I will begin the cringe. I may never let anyone read this, nor tell them I wrote it because of the many raised eyebrows it would bring forth, but I will appreciate this introduction because it's like I'm talking to myself. So without further ado, I bring forth my abomination.

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It had been several months since the end of the great sandwing war of succession. The dragonets who were responsible for the end of said catastrophe had soon found themselves to be hero's among the clans, and as such had been invited to visit the respective queens of each. This was a nice gesture, but it made for a lot of stress and wear on the dragonets. At first, none of them had wanted to go, but sunny had convinced them.

"You guys, it's very rude to refuse such invitations." She had said, "Do you realize how many dragons are grateful for what we've done? We can at least give them the chance to say thank you."

And so, after some grumbling, they had arranged to carry out this plan. Their first visit was to queen thorn, because even though she and her staff were quite familiar with the dragonets, none of her new kingdom was. After that, they had made a round trip through the mud, sea and sky kingdoms, and were now flying home.

They were soaring above the foothills that led to the claws of the clouds mountains. To their right, in the far distance the peak of jade mountain could be seen if they squinted, and before them lay the flatlands, with the haze of the rainforest in the distance.

"Almost home." Said deathbringer, "if we make good time, we'll be in the village by midnight."

"Which is where you should have stayed." Said glory, "instead of following us around half the planet to pick up some spare fame and attention."

Deathbringer pulled a face at her.

"Oh my Queen, you don't actually believe that it would have been wise to travel such a distance without your bodyguard, would you? Who knows what would have happened if you hadn't brought the world's best assassin?"

"Which is who again?" Asked glory, "I seem to forget who that is. Dear me, with such an important title I surely wouldn't forget them. Maybe you could clue me in?"

"Oh, ouch." Said deathbringer, " that hurts. Why don't you put a hot blade in my heart while you're at it."

"Alright you two, enough of the sappy affection." Called tsunami, " it's making me sick. I swear, if I have to listen to another rendition of why you needed to make a show of killing alligators in front of us, I'll show you who the real assassin is."

Deathbringer rolled his eyes.

"It wasn't a show, it was a threat that I skillfully neutralize-"

"Ah," said tsunami, "I said not another word."

"Agreed." Said glory, "can we change the subject?"

"To what?" Asked fatespeaker, the only other tag along with the dragonets.

"I know!" Said sunny, "what was your favorite part of the trip? Mine was when auklet started saying my name. That's so cool that my name was the first thing she's ever said, it makes me wish I had a sister. Or siblings in general."

"Hey," said Clay, " what about us? It's not like we've been growing up together our whole lives or anything."

"Well, yeah I know." Said sunny, "but you know what I mean. Little siblings, who I could teach and play with as they get bigger."

Tsunami snorted.

"Trust me, it's great and all, take it from me. But it can get really tiring. That was my favorite part by the way, meeting my brothers. Yep, all…."

She trailed off, and everyone looked at her.

"All what?" Asked starflight, his sightless eyes looking right past her.

Tsunami thought for a second, then said,

"Hm, I can't remember how many there are. But I did meet them all, and I got all their names, although I can only remember a few."

"Hey, A for the effort." Said glory, "I've got anemone and auklet figured out, and from there I don't even try. But it's good that you met them. My favorite part was when I showed clay's siblings I wasn't a mud wing. I don't know if you guys caught that, but it was pretty great. I had umber a little confused for a minute with the whole Mudwing- RainWing transformation."

"Yeah, that was my favorite too,". Said clay, "well, that and the eating. There was so much food, I've never seen so much in one place."

"Did you ever get full?" Asked glory.

Clay nodded his head vigorously.

"Yeah, I did. I've never felt not-hungry before. Why don't we have feasts like that in the rainforest glory?"

Glory shrugged.

"Because I've been a little busy lately. But maybe I will throw a feast, just for you clay."

"Really?!"

"Sure, why not? After three feasts in the matter of a few days, what would one more hurt?"

"Hey, that might be a good idea,". Said starflight, "it could possibly bring the night wings and rainwings closer together as a tribe, help them move on from the past."

Glory shrugged.

"Perhaps. So long as jambu hasn't managed to burn down the village while I was away." She looked at deathbringer. "Which would have been a good task for you, mister tag-along."

"Me, babysit your brother?" Asked deathbringer, "no way. I would rather fight a hundred dragons with my eyes covered."

"Of course you would, you-"

"Hey! Don't you two start!" Said tsunami, "besides, I'm sure grandeur is keeping the peace just fine. Now, what was your favorite part of this delightful trip starflight?"

Starflight pumped his wings a few times, thinking a minute before answering.

"Well,". He said, " I liked the library that Queen Ruby has. It was nice of her to let me borrow some scrolls."

Sunny laughed.

"Oh starflight, between you and fatespeaker I think you have half the library."

Starflight grinned somewhat bashfully as he adjusted a strap to the dark leather bag he was carrying.

"Well, what can I say? I like reading, even if someone else's eyes have to do all the work."

Fatespeaker grinned, also readjusting the leather pack she carried.

"I don't mind. I get to hang out with you and sunny teaches me how to read. It's a win-win I say."

"How thrilling."

Everyone jumped and turned to see the new voice. Flying just behind them was a dark red skywing with jewels embedded in her scales and a half melted face. "Do you know what my favorite part was?" Asked Queen scarlet, " it was when I found all of my least favorite dragons, all in the same place. How convenient."

It took a second for the shock to pass, then tsunami hissed,

"Stay back you monster, go crawl back into whatever hole you came from."

Scarlet laughed.

"Oh my, that was certainly uncalled for. What would your mother say about your manners?"

At this point, deathbringer had put himself between scarlet and the rest of the group.

"If you want to get at them,". He snarled, "you're going to have to go through me."

Scarlet gave him a smug look.

"Oh, is that really so? I don't think I will."

"What?" Said deathbringer "then why-" he understood a second too late. Deathbringer turned skyward just as a second skywing came out of the sun. Sunny screamed as the skywing drove a spear deep into deathbringer's body. In a second, the NightWing assassin was plummeting to the ground below. Tsunami and glory simultaneously launched themselves at scarlet, but within the blink of an eye two more SkyWings had fallen upon them and clubbed the senseless. The rest of the dragonets hovered in mid air, unsure of what to do.

"Does anyone else feel lucky?" Asked scarlet, gesturing to a now unconscious glory and tsunami, dangling from their attackers talons. "I was really only worried about these two, but we can take the rest of you out as well."

Sunny held back clay.

"What do you want?" Yelled fatespeaker, "why are you doing this?"

"Oh, well what I want is very simple." Said scarlet, "I just want you to come with me."

"We're not going anywhere with you!" Screamed sunny. Scarlet shrugged.

"Alright then, we'll do this the hard way. Sandbag them."

At once, scarlet and the three SkyWings attacked, expertly wielding sandbags aimed at their skulls. First they got clay, since he was biggest, and from there sunny, fatespeaker and starflight were helpless to resist.

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**Okay, that's chapter one. By the way, this is my first time putting a story out for anyone to see, and so I'm still trying to figure out how this works. Right now I have to figure out how to put up chapter two. Since this story has already been written, I can make regular uploads, and was thinking to do one chapter a week. But that all depends on how it is received. If nobody reads this, I won't bother and will take it down. If somebody does, then I will continue. Please tell me what you think, I'm open to all forms of feedback. If you liked it, say so. If you hated it, say so. Thanks.**


	2. Chapter2

**Okay, here's chapter two. I decided to update because it's a snow day and I'm bored. I have checked eagerly for reviews, and have only seen one, so I guess I am talking to one person.**

**Thank you queenglorythefirst, you made my day. Also, thank you for those points. I am trying harder to keep my spelling and grammar correct, but of course I still miss things, sorry. I guess that's part of breezing through a prewritten document. As for your other points:**

**-who are those skywings? You will see.**

**-yes, using sandbags is a thing. At least, in theory. The idea is that a normal club would most likely damage the victims brain, which could very likely kill them. A sandbag, correctly sized and wielded, would be solid enough to render them unconscious, but soft enough to not damage the skull.**

**\- Fatespeaker does know how to read, but not that well according to this story. It is mentioned later on why that is**

**-and finally, yes, you are correct. I was wrong, scarlet is orange. Thanks for pointing that out, please let me know if anything else is incorrect.**

**Okay, with that said, here's chapter two.**

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Clay woke up in a cave. He had a splitting headache, and he ached all over. He sat up and did a quick assessment of his surroundings. This cave was actually a cell, a very large prison cell. There was a passageway leading past it, but blocked off from him by cast iron bars. There were torches in the passageway, lighting the whole area in flickering orange.

Clays first thought was the others, and he began looking around for them. To his dismay, he was alone. The only thing in his cell, oddly, was a large oak table.

Clay closed his eyes and tried to think. The last he remembered, he had been attacked by scarlet. Which could mean anything had happened to his friends.

He went to the cell door and tried to look out into the passageway, but there was nothing. The tunnel disappeared from sight on both sides as it rounded a bend.

"Hello?" he called, "is anyone there?"

He didn't hear a reply. Clay sighed, and leaned against the wall. What was going on? He wondered. Last time they had been Scarlets prisoners, she had made them fight in an arena for her amusement. Now what would she do? Scarlet was pretty mad about how they had escaped, and how glory had ruined her face. He suspected that she wasn't just going to let them sit in a cave while she did her own thing. He was afraid for glory. He was scared for all of them, but mostly glory. Who knew what scarlet would do to her.

He suddenly heard footsteps in the passage, echoing from around the bend. In a moment, a tall, unfamiliar skywing was staring at him through the bars.

"I thought I heard something." she said, "the queen will be happy to know that you're awake mudwing."

"Where are my friends?" asked clay, "what's happened to them?"

The skywing shrugged as she turned back the way she came.

"That is not my place to say." she said.

And with that, she was gone.

Clay sat down and worried as he waited for her to come back with scarlet. He didn't have to wait long.

Scarlet was there in only a minute. The other skywing stood behind her as she peered through the bars at him.

"Well well, look who awake." she said, "it's about time, your friends are still out cold."

"Where are they?" he asked, "what did you do to them?"

Scarlet grinned.

"It's not what I have done to them. It's what I'm going to do to them.

Clay felt his stomach twist into a knot.

"What… are you-"

"Oh, really, should you even worry?" asked scarlet, "who cares about them? Arent you worried about what I'm going to do to you?"

Clay blinked, unsure of how to answer that. Yes, he was a little worried about that, but he was really only worried about his friends. Scarlet kept talking. "I'm sure it will put your mind at ease to tell you that I will do nothing to you. Consider yourself safe here mudwing. As you can see, you have a large, roomy cell, no chains or muzzles, and I will be sending shale with some roasted boar. You will be just fine."

"But," said Clay, "what about my friends?"

Scarlets grin grew into a toothy smile.

"That's the thing." she said, "i had a thrilling idea. Your friends are alright for now, but they won't be. They will suffer the most brutal, painful things i can think up, and you will be here. Safe, well fed and sound as they suffer. They will be totally removed from you, so you cannot even try to share in their predicament. You will only see them when they are paraded past your cell."

Clay began to tremble.

"Please," he said, "please don't do that. It's me you want, really, I-I made the escape happen, it's my fault your face was ruined. Take me instead, please let them go."

Scarlet laughed as she began to walk away.

"Oh little mudwing, it's so cute when you beg. I'd like to hear more of it in the future, but right now I have other things to do. Have a nice day."

And with that, she was gone. Clay slumped, and held his head in his talons. This was bad. He could only imagine what sick ideas scarlet had thought up, apparently this was one of them. He was trapped, his friends were in terrible danger, and he could do nothing to help them.

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When tsunami came to, she was in a very unfamiliar place. She groggily looked around, taking stock of her surroundings. She was lying on cold rock, in a dark cave of some sort. The rock walls were damp and showed signs of deep chiseling, like that had been carved by hand. She tried to sit up, but fell back with a cry of pain and a loud metallic clatter.

She began to realize what a killer headache she had, and had to take a minute to stop from throwing up. When she got her stomach under control, she once again sat up, slowly. It was dark in the cave, but her fluorescent stripes cut the gloom, and her eyes let her see in the dark. Thick iron chains were clamped around each leg, connecting together to form a hobble, that was then attached to an iron ring that had been driven into the wall. To her left was the wall, straight ahead was a tunnel which led in from one side of the cave and out the other in a downhill slope. Tall iron bars stretched from stone to ceiling, blocking her off from that tunnel. To her right, she saw the others chained to the wall just like her. Tsunami's heart leapt at the sight of them, all lying unconscious on the stone. She took a quick head count, and to her horror, clay wasn't there. She looked around, but there was no sign of the mudwing. She hobbled over to them but ran out of slack before she could reach anyone. The closest was glory, lying in an untidy pile on the stone. Tsunami reached out with her wing and brushed it against the rainwings tail.

"Glory!" She hissed, "wake up. Come on get up, this is a really bad time to be asleep."

Glory didn't stir. Tsunami wished she had some water to throw over them. But there was nothing around to use, so she resorted to nudging glory with her wingtip. After quite a long time of this, glory began to stir. She groaned and shifted, but her back was to tsunami so she couldn't see if glory was actually awake.

"Glory," she said again, "wake up! Are you awake? You had better be, because we're in some big trouble."

Glory moaned and sat up, taking a moment to hold her head in her talons. Then she slowly faced tsunami, who started in surprise. Glory had a big, heavy band of steel locked around her jaw, effectively muzzling her. Tsunami blinked, then looked past her at the others. It wasn't just glory. Fatespeaker and sunny both had muzzles clamped on their jaws as well, but not starflight. The blind NightWing still had his bag of scrolls with him, many of the parchments were spilled across the floor.

Glory tried to say something, but it was muffled and came out as a mumble.

Tsunami shook her head.

"I can't understand you. Are you alright?"

Glory looked around and shrugged, nodding.

"Clay." She said. She had to grit it out through clenched teeth, "whess clay?"

Tsunami shook her head.

"I don't know. I was hoping you would."

"No." Said glory, "wha bout detch- deth bringer?"

Tsunami again shook her head.

"No, I don't know. Last I saw, he was falling."

Glory sniffed and looked at her shackled feet. "Try not to worry." Said tsunami, "I'm sure he will be okay. He's been through a lot, he's the world's best assassin, remember? He'll be okay."

But tsunami knew that couldn't be true. She and glory had both seen the spear driven into his back, and the way he had fallen to earth like an empty rag.

"Let's wake the others." Said tsunami, trying to change the subject, "and let's get out of here."

Glory nodded, and turned to fatespeaker and starflight. She reached out and grabbed fatespeakers arm, and shook it vigorously. After a few minutes, fatespeaker began to stir, so glory switched to starflight. Starflight regained consciousness with only a few sharp jabs. He yelped, and sat up. The bandage that was normally around his seared eyes was gone, and now the destroyed Retina reflected tsunamis fluorescent scales like mirrors.

"What's going on?" He whispered, swiveling his head around, "fatespeaker? Glory? Clay? I can't hear you."

"We're right here," said tsunami, "were all here, except clay."

"Where are we? Where's clay?" He brought his talons to his face. "My head hurts really bad. What happened?"

"I'm not sure." Said tsunami, "Queen scarlet captured us, and now we're here. You and I are the only ones not wearing a muzzle, but we're all chained to the wall."

Starflight shivered. Now fatespeaker sat up, groaning as she blinked back into consciousness.

"Whath… whath going on?" She said, the muzzle slurring her words.

"Starflight, can you try to wake sunny?" Asked tsunami.

Starflight looked around.

"Where is she?" He asked.

"Beside you, take a few steps to your right."

Starflight did this, reaching out blindly.

Suddenly, from up the tunnel, there was a clatter of metal.

"Watch it, would you?!" Somebody barked, "you nearly stabbed my foot you clumsy ox!"

Everyone looked at each other, not sure of what to do. In the tunnel, an orange glow appeared at the bend in the tunnel, and the sound of footsteps approached.

"Pretend your still unconscious!" Said tsunami. She dropped to the floor, trying to recreate how she had been laying before, the others followed her lead. They waited in tense silence as the footsteps drew nearer. In a short time, bright firelight flooded the cave. Tsunami kept one eye cracked slightly open. Three skywings walked into the cave. Tsunami instantly recognized Queen Scarlet, but she didn't know the other two.

Scarlet growled, stamping her foot in frustration.

"Oh come on." She said, "still unconscious? How long do I have to wait? It's been a whole day now, we didn't hit them that hard, did we?"

One of the skywings, a female only slightly smaller than scarlet, leaned into the bars and peered at tsunami.

"Well," she said, "when suffering a blow to the head sufficient enough to render one unconscious, it is not unusual to remain unconscious. After all, that is a very heavy shock to their brains, and they are still adolescents."

Scarlet snorted.

"Of course. Of course they would do that, just to drive me crazy. It's bad enough I had to do some of the dirty work myself, but now I have to wait forever to get my revenge. Maybe I should just kill that mudwing while I wait, at least he's awake."

Tsunami felt her ears prick at the news of clay. But she immediately wished she hadn't, as the other female skywing looked closer at her.

"Your majesty, perhaps we can render them conscious again. Cory, go fetch that water bucket from the forge."

The other skywing, a male who was holding a spear, looked at her.

"But shales usin' that bucket, he cools all those metal bits with it."

Scarlet snapped at him.

"Do like she said. Bring that bucket, and don't spill any of it you clutz, in fact, leave me that spear. Now hurry, I don't have much patience, and if I have to wait much more I'll do to you what I plan to do to them."

The skywing, cory, dropped the spear and hustled off down the tunnel. He took the torch with him, leaving the cave in darkness.

For a few minutes, there was silence. With the only light coming from tsunamis fluorescent scales, she felt more confident to open her eye a little wider. She waited. She could feel the others behind her, also waiting. It was a very tense quiet. Tsunami wished scarlet would say something more about clay. Was he alright? Where was he? She knew he was awake, but she had no idea what condition he was in. but knowing queen scarlet, she feared the worst. What had she done with poor clay?

"You know," said scarlet, almost making tsunami jump. Scarlet was looking right at her, "those glowing strips are kind of pretty. What makes them do that?"

Tsunami was almost afraid that scarlet knew she was awake, but the other skywing started talking.

"It's a chemical, or biological reaction, I think. It's unique only to the seawing species, and because of the war, I haven't gotten to study them very much, I'm afraid."

"Well why not?" asked scarlet, "you were my head medical scientist. I found some of your work very interesting, all you needed was to ask and I would have given you some prisoners to experiment on."

The other skywing shrugged.

"I would have done just that, but i spent a lot of that time pursuing the knowledge of skywing anatomy. I had no shortage of wounded soldiers to work on, and devoted a lot of time into putting them back together. I was doing some side projects when you disappeared, and lost them in the chaos. Among them were my experiments with seawing stripes."

Scarlet shook her head.

"And what a pity." she said. "I would have liked to have known what you found. It's so interesting, in fact, those stripes seem to remind me of a certain rainwing that I kept on display. I would have liked to know how that works too, venom teeth, color shifting scales."

Tsunami had a bad feeling that she knew where this was going.

"Perhapse all is not lost?" asked the other skywing, "i mean, we do have several subjects right here-"

"Ciel, don't get too many ideas!" scarlet barked, "they're mine! Nobody lies a talon on them save me."

The other skywing, ciel, had backed up a step. After a moment, scarlet deflated, and looked thoughtful. "You know," she said, "you're actually not wrong. Maybe we could work together, see what we can do."

Ciel nodded.

"That sounds mutually beneficial to me."

"Oh cut it out with the big words." said scarlet, "they make you sound all stuck up and snobby."

At that point, the glow of the torch appeared around the corner, and running footsteps approached. Corey cam running into the cave with the torch in his talons and the bucket hanging from his jaw. He was breathing hard as he set the bucket down.

"Well that certainly took you long enough." said scarlet, "what was the holdup?"

Corey held the handle out to her.

"Shale was still using it. I had to almost fight him for it too. Be careful, the water is almost boiling."

"Oh perfect!" said scarlet, snatching the handle, "somebody unlock the door. It's about time we got this show going."

Corey held the torch, ciel unlocked the door. Tsunami noticed that the spear was used as the key. The oval shaped blade fit into the lock, which popped the door open. Tsunami watched as scarlet stepped inside, holding the wooden buck with two talons. The water inside was steaming, making a cloud that quickly condensed and dissipated. Scarlet walked up to them, and drew back her arms. At the last second, tsunami sprang to her feet, snapping at scarlets wrists. Scarlet was taken completely by surprise, and staggered back. Tsunami spread her wings and caught almost all the water before it could hit her friends. It was scalding hot, and she roared in pain while staggering back, trying to blink the hot liquid out of her eyes.

"Why isn't that thing muzzled!?" screamed scarlet, "they're supposed to be muzzled, why aren't they muzzled!?"

Corey stepped back as the irate queen stormed out of the cell.

"They are, majesty, they-"

"No they're not!" yelled scarlet, "does that look like a muzzled dragon to you? Werent you and your idiot brother supposed to take care of that?"  
"We are, we did!" said corey, "it's just, the muzzles we built weren't the right size, and the lock broke on one of them. We had to make new ones."

"Why didn't you tell me!" snarled scarlet.

"We thought they wouldn't be awake yet! Besides, they're all muzzled except the sea wing and blind nightwing. We figured it would be safe to leave them for last, shales making their muzzles right now."

Scarlet glared at him for a moment, then turned away.

"Fine. but he had better hurry up, or ill kill you both. I should tear your wings off for not telling me."

"My queen," said Ciel, "I have a better idea."

By now, all the dragonets were standing, except sunny. Scarlet looked at them, and a grin spread across her face.

"Well, I suppose you're right." She said. Scarlet came back to the cell, through the door, and looked over the dragonets. Tsunami stood between her and them, still smarting from the hot water that was now cooling and collecting in a puddle beneath her. She had a snarl etched on her face.

Scarlet only grinned wider. "Well, this is exciting. Who should I start with first? The annoying sea wing, the blind night wing, or-" she leveled a sudden glare at glory. "Or the horrid rainwing."

Tsunami growled, bringing scarlets eyes back to her.

"You aren't going to lay a talon on them. Any of them."

Scarlet raised an eyebrow.

"Ciel, you should look into this. It's the weirdest thing, these dragonets are always throwing themselves in front of the others, like they're trying to sacrifice themselves for each other. You heard that mudwing, didn't you?"

Ciel nodded.

"Yes, a whole lot of-"take me, let them go" nonsense."

"Where is clay?!" Tsunami demanded.

Scarlet waved her away.

"Oh don't worry about him, he's just fine, now you-"

"Don't lie!" Hissed tsunami, "tell me the truth."

Scarlet raised her eyebrow further.

"What makes you think I should tell you anything? Your the prisoner here, not me. But as for your mudwing friend, he's fine. Literally. Like, I actually haven't done anything to him, he's in his own cell, without a muzzle and with all the food he could possibly want."

Tsunami didn't believe scarlet at all. But before she could say anything more, scarlet clapped her talons together. "Alright, let's get on with this. I've been waiting so long, it's time we settled our business. First up, the rainwing."

"Back off." Said tsunami, "your not getting at anyone."

"Really?" Said scarlet, "and how do you plan to stop me?"

Tsunami just glared. She knew she couldn't stop scarlet, but every second she bought was another second that scarlet wasn't hurting her friends.

"Corey," called scarlet, "come and help me get the rainwing. At least keep this creature away from me while I unhook the chains."

Corey took the spear back from ciel and advanced on tsunami. Tsunami growled as the blade came closer to her face. "Subdue her,". Said scarlet, "but don't kill her."

Scarlet began to go for glory. Tsunami lunged at her, hit the end of her chain and crashed to the ground. Immediately, Corey was on top of her, effecting a pin. Tsunami lashed out and struggled, squirming out of his grasp while at the same time looping a chain around his neck. Corey tried to grab her, but she pulled away, and reversed the pin. The chains had snarled the two of them, and now they were in affect chained together, back to back. Tsunami pulled on the chain for all she was worth, and Corey began to buck and kick as she cut off his air supply. She was out of his reach, putting him at her mercy. He began to gag and pull at the chain, but she held tight.

Then Ciel was there. With an open talon she swung at tsunamis face. Tsunami felt the blow, but ignored it. With her hind legs she kicked out and caught Ciel in the jaw, sending the skywing a step back.

Ciel came at her again, and dodged another kick. Tsunami swung her powerful tail and took the legs out from under the bigger dragon. Ciel crashed to the ground, and tsunami got in a second and third kick with both hind feet.

"ENOUGH!" Roared scarlet, "stop this at once or I will kill your friend!"

Tsunami paused mid kick and looked over at scarlet, who was holding sunny in the air by her throat. Sunny was just now coming awake, and was kicking feebly in scarlet's grasp.

Tsunami hesitated, unsure of what to do. "I mean it." Said scarlet, and to prove her point she dug her talons into the scales on sunny's neck. Sunny let out a muffled squeal, and the sound made tsunami freeze. She slowly released the chains, and Corey took a big gasp of air. Scarlet nodded. "That's better." She said. She dropped sunny ungraciously to the floor. The little sandwing gasped and tried to press her talons to the deep claw marks.

Scarlet stormed up to tsunami. Glory tried to intercept, but scarlet smacked her aside with her tail.

"I was going to start with the rainwing, but since you want to be first so badly, I will grant your wish."

Ciel stood, looking a little unsteady. She spat out a broken tooth.

"Unhook her." Said scarlet, "we've got business to attend to."

Tsunami had to squash every instinct to fight. She wanted to so badly, and she knew that no good would come of peacefully following scarlet anywhere, but she didn't want to see her friends hurt. As She was unhooked from the wall, all she could be thankful for was at least for now her friends were safe. She was still buying time, and when they were out of this cell and too far away for scarlet to easily threaten her friends she would fight every step of the way. Every second she could make was worth all her strength.

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When tsunami was led away, the cell was closed and the cave was dark once again.

"What happened?" Asked starflight, "where have they taken her?"

Fatespeaker sniffed.

"Good old tsunami. She beat them up good, but now they're taking her somewhere."

"What's going to happen to her?" Asked sunny, still not aware of what was going on. Glory shook her head.

"I don't know. But it's not going to be good. We need to get out of here, fast. Any ideas?"

She couldn't see them shake their heads in the dark.

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**Thanks for reading. When writing the character dialogue for those in muzzles, I tried saying their lines through clenched teeth and then wrote what the words sounded like. After this chapter though, they speak normally. I figured that the steel bands would let them talk normally, if not a little muffled. Also, my jaw got sore from clenching my teeth. **

**Anyway, thanks again for reading. Please review, I love reading your comments.**


	3. Chapter3

**Alright, it's been a week. I just had a thought as I went through this peice for spelling mistakes.**

**Was I supposed to say that I own those skywing characters? I don't think anyone would take them or anything, but should I say it nonetheless?**

**So yes, I'm saying it. Those three skywing characters belong to me. If anyone wants to use them for some reason, just ask. I don't really care, but I do want to know if they are used, because I want to read the story's written with them. Anyways, here's chapter three.**

**Thank you queenglorythefirst, you are the only reason I made updating this a priority.**

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Clay heard the footsteps and rattle of chains echoing down the halls. He also heard loud roaring and thrashing, and long before he saw them he knew that tsunami was giving scarlet a hard time. When they came into sight, it was scarlet and the other two skywings trying to drag tsunami. Scarlet looked untouch, but the other two skywings had bitemarks and long bleeding scratches across their forearms, snouts, and anything else that got too close to tsunami.

"Wouldn't it be easier to club her again?" yelled corey, jumping back from another bite.

"No" said scarlet, "I don't want her unconscious again. I had to wait too long last time."

Ciel landed a good punch on tsunamis face, causing the irate seawing to lose a few steps.

As they came in front of his cage, clay had his face to the bars. Scarlet saw him, and said, "don't you dare try to burn us, or your friend here is dead."

Clay swallowed the fireball he had been building. He felt awful, he felt helpless as they drug her past. Then tsunami saw him, and he saw the relief cross her face. Tsunami shoved corey, and got ahold of the bars to his cell. She wrapped her arms and tail around them, putting her face to face with clay. For a moment, the fight with the skywings was forgotten.

"Clay!" she said, "are you alright? I'm so glad to see you."

Clay reached through the bars and grabbed onto the chain that the skywing were using to drag her, pulling for all he was worth, helping her catch her breath. She was bruised and bloodied, a deep claw mark ran across the side of her face.

"Im fine tsunami, don't worry about me. Are the others okay, what about you?"

She was breathing hard, she had fought hard, he could tell. Her arms were quivering as she tried to hold on. Scarlet had joined the other two, and the chain was biting into both tsunami and clays scales. He pulled harder, summoning up strength from somewhere deep inside.

"The others-" she gasped, "are awake. They- okay. For now." she ground her teeth as the skywings pulled harder. Clay put his hind feet on the bars and heaved. The chain stretched taught, and tsunami began to slip. There was an audible pop as something in her body gave way, and tsunami roared in pain.

Scarlet threw down the chain in frustration.

"Stop, just stop." She said. Corey and Ciel let go of the chain. The moment the pressure was off, tsunami slumped, groaning. The chains had been pulled so hard that they had left deep indents in tsunamis scales.

Scarlet stormed towards them. "Well mudwing, do you feel like a little hero? You think you can help them? You're wrong. You have only increased her suffering."

She looked In Through the bars as he spread his wings, trying to cover tsunami.

"Because of this little stunt, you will hear her screams for a long time. Just remember that it will be your fault for that."

"Don't listen to her," gasped tsunami, "she's trying to play with your mind."

Scarlet shrugged.

"But actions speak louder than words. And if you insist on continuing to resist like this, we will pull you apart, which would give me great satisfaction to watch ."

Clay looked from scarlet to tsunami. He took her talon in his.

"I'm not going to let go." He said.

Scarlet shrugged.

"It's her funeral. I don't care." Turning to the others, scarlet said, " Corey, go get shale. This is about to get interesting."

Clay felt tsunami letting go of the bars.

"What do I do?" He asked.

"Don't worry clay." Said tsunami, "just let go. I'll be fine."

"No you won't." Said clay, he couldn't believe she was giving up like this, even though there was nothing else to do, " tsunami, she'll kill you."

"No she won't." Said tsunami, throwing a hate filled glare at scarlet, "there's no fun in that."

Scarlet cackled.

"True!" She said, "so true. Well, depending on my self control."

Now clay was shaking.

"Please don't do this tsunami,". He whispered, "please don't give up. You're the one who's supposed to never give up."

"And who said I was giving up?" Said tsunami. She stood, now on tree legs, and unwound her tail from the bars. Corey and Ciel took up the chain. "I'm not giving up clay, and you better not either." She leaned in and murmured, "But there's nothing else I can do right now, except buy you time to escape. Please don't waste it."

She gently shook his talons off, and winced at her now dislocated shoulder.

"Are you done whispering to each other yet?" Demanded scarlet. Ciel tugged on the chain, and tsunami braced against it.

"Don't worry about me clay. You will not hear me scream. I won't give her the pleasure."

Clay felt tears in his eyes as the brave seawing braced against the chain, and when she couldn't hold anymore she charged the skywings. They disappeared around the corner as tsunami fought them with the little strength she had left.

As they disappeared from sight, clay slumped against the bars. He clenched and unclenched his talons on the bar where tsunami had been. He closed his eyes and tried to hold back the tears, fear, hopelessness, and the horrifying realization that tsunami had sacrificed herself.

—————-

There was no way of knowing how long tsunami was gone. Glory had spent the time trying to think of a way to escape, and to keep the others calm. She would have thought that her time as a Queen would have helped her to know what to say, and what to do, but it didn't work. Unlike her subjects, glory's friends knew her personally, and they saw right through any attempts to appear brave and confident. She hated herself for that. She wasn't confident, not right now, not with the stakes of this situation, and she wasn't brave. Tsunami had been the brave one, drawing the attention to herself to protect the others. And glory had let them take her. There was nothing she really could have done, but she still felt like she could have done more. But instead she sat by the wall, a scared, powerless dragonet.

And yet, the others looked up to her. Starflight had the brains, in her opinion, and she would rather they followed him, or anyone else right now, but they had their eyes on her. So she had no choice but to try to direct them.

"Starflight," She said, "do you have any idea how many of those scrolls you have left?"

It was impossible to see him in the dark, but she could picture him shaking his head before answering.

"No. I still have the bag, and there's a good bundle in there, but I don't know how many are lying around here."

There was silence again as they waited for glory. She tried to think of what to do.

"Okay," she breathed, "everyone start feeling around, sweep any scrolls you find into one pile, and pick up any rocks or metal bits you may find. There has to be something here that can help us."

They set to it. She could hear clanking chains and talons on rock as they looked around.

"Should I give us some light?" Asked starflight.

"Yes, but be careful. I don't want a pile of loose paper going up in smoke."

There was a second, then starflight let out a jet of flame. It took a second for her eyes to adjust, to see him reared back on his haunches and sending his fire straight up in a pillar towards the ceiling. Time seemed to freeze as the orange light fought back the damp cold dark of the cave. In the light, starflights sightless eyes glistened eerily, iron bars cast warped and harsh shadows, and the chains gleamed forebodingly.

Glory blinked the light spots out of her vision and set to work. Starflight could only breath so much fire, so they made quick work with the light. Glory found three loose rocks and several scrolls. She swept them into a pile where fatespeaker added several more. As starflights fire began to flicker away, sunny added three scrolls, a rock and a length of broken chain. As the darkness closed in once more the small group huddled together, as if for warmth.

"So what are you thinking?" asked starflight. Glory blindly reached and felt the rocky floor until she found Sunny's piece of chain. She picked it up and felt the broken end with her talons.

"I'm not sure what I'm thinking." she said.

"What are the rocks for?" Fatespeaker asked. Her voice was close to glory, and she turned to face the sound of it in the dark.

"I'm not sure how we can use them. But I wanted to have any tools available."

"Can you pick the lock on your wrist?" asked sunny.

Glory felt the opening on the restraint, gauging the size and shape. She tried to fit the chunk of chain into the opening, but it was too wide.

"No." she said, "it wont fit."

"Can starflight melt them?" asked fatespeaker, "the chains i mean?"

Glory shook her head, although no one could see her.

"No. we tried that once, it took starflight and sunny both to melt through them."

"Oh darn it." said fatespeaker.

"Any other ideas?" asked glory, "I'm not that great at planning this stuff. Keep 'em coming."

"What about the rocks?" asked sunny, " will one of those fit?"

Glory laid the broken chain in easy reach and felt around for the rocks. There were six of them, four of which she immediately discarded. The last two were long and narrow, but only one fit into the slot. Glory tried to move the internal workings of the lock, but after several minutes she gave up.

"It's no use." she said, "they don't fit. What else can we do?"

"What kind of key did they use?" asked starflight.

"No key." said fatespeaker, "they used a spear. They put the blade into the lock."

Starflight was quiet a second.

"What are you thinking?" glory prompted.

"I was wondering if we could somehow replicate the key, but the spear blade might be easier."

"You have a plan?" asked sunny.

"Maybe." said starflight, "i can't heat the metal enough to melt it, but what if we could form it instead?"

Glory smiled.

"Thatta boy starflight," she said, "what do you think we will need?"

"A big rock." said starflight, "we need to have something to use like a hammer. I can heat the end of the chain, and you can pound it flat with the rock."

"Wait," said fatespeaker, "won't that be noisy? What happens if they hear it?"

Glory tried to think, but couldn't come up with anything. If the skywings heard them hammering on something they would surely some to investigate, and then they would take away the improvised tools.

"We'll just have to work quietly. As quietly as we can." She felt around and found one of the rocks. It was heavy, and about the size of her talon. "I think this one will work. You ready to try this?"

"Yes." said starflight, "but we will need to hurry. By the sound of it, they plan to have a muzzle on me before long."

Glory found back the length of broken chain, and held it out in the direction of his voice.

"Here," she said, "fatespeaker can help make sure that you are heating it consistently.

There was a moment of shuffling, then she felt starflights talons on hers. He took the chain, she released it, and it was gone from her in the dark.

"Okay," he said, lying it on the stones in front of him, "here goes nothing."

In a second, there was another blast of orange light. Starflight exhaled the flames and fatespeaker reached over to adjust the chain so the broken end was in the flames. Glorys heart began to thud in her chest as hope began to spring up.

Then they heard footsteps and clanking chains far off in the tunnel.

Fatespeaked grabbed starflights mouth and yanked it shut, glory discarded the rock and sunny snatched the chain. She hid it behind her as the sounds of approaching dragons drew closer. In a few moments the orange glow of a torch appeared around the bend. The three skywings came into view, scarlet and Ciel in the lead, Corey following. Ciel and scarlet both carried torches, sending light flooding into the cave, causing the dragonets to shield their eyes.

"Well, that was thrilling," Said scarlet, "I feel so refreshed, like I finally slept well for once. I can hardly wait to get started on the next one."

Ciel opened the door and Corey came in. The dragonets stared in horror as he drug the battered, bloodied form of tsunami across the cell and chained her between glory and starflight. Scarlet leaned in to watch their reactions as Corey left. Glory took tsunamis face in her talons, gently cradling her head. The seawing was lying crookedly her eyes were mostly closed, the pupils had rolled back into her head. She was unconscious, or at least glory hoped she was.

Fatespeaker whimpered and sunny let out a little cry of dismay. She reached out, like she wanted to hold tsunami, but she was much too far away.

"You killed her!" Fatespeaker choked, "why would you-"

"I did no such thing." Said scarlet, "although trust me, I wanted to. Ciel here is very good at knowing the physical limits of other dragons."

She looked to Ciel, who nodded.

"She is not dead, although when she wakes up she may wish she were. She is merely unconscious, it's a defensive mechanism that the brain takes when there is too much pain. It shuts down in an attempt to protect the individual from too much of a shock, a pain overload."

"In other words, she stopped squirming." Said scarlet, "and it's no fun to torture someone if they can't feel it."

Glory glared at scarlet as a chill swept through her body. Utter revulsion filled her with a hate so fierce that her scales turned an enraged shade of red.

"You sick ... thing." She hissed, "you absolute coward. Tsunami could have beaten you squarely, so you had to tie her down. You are sick, you are twisted, but mostly your weak. How could you do this?"

Scarlet grinned. She was loving every word, and glory saw it. She clamped her mouth shut and forced herself to say nothing more.

Scarlet saw that she was going to get nothing more out of them.

"Well." She said, "I can't wait to hear what else you have to say later on. For now, I will leave you alone. It's well after dark outside, and I haven't had a thing to eat all day. Sleep well, big day tomorrow."

And with that, she turned to leave. Ciel followed after, leaving Corey holding the torches.

"Hey," Called Corey, "should I leave a torch here?"

Ciel stopped at the entrance, looked thoughtful, then shrugged.

"I don't care. I have some new experiments to look into, so why don't you bring their water for them tonight?"

Corey followed her out of the cave, taking the light with him.

"Wait, what?" He said, "new experiments? What do you mean?..."

The darkness settled in once more. Tsunamis fluorescent scales glowed dimly, very dimly, just tiny spots in the dark.

"What did they do to her?" Whispered starflight.

Glory shook her head. She was still holding tsunami, although she couldn't see her in the dark.

"I don't know." She said, "something terrible. I didn't even look."

There was quiet. Sunny had softly began to cry.

"They said she was alive." Whispered fatespeaker, "but is she?"

Starflight breathed a plume of flame, briefly illuminating the cell. In the half light, tsunamis broken body glistened with drying blood. The firelight faded again, and it was dark once more.

Glory gently tried feeling for a pulse again, but had no luck.

"I can't feel a pulse." She said. Sunny moaned.

"Oh poor tsunami. She can't be dead, please don't say she's dead."

Starflight reached towards the sound of her voice and drew her in with his wing.

"She's okay, she's alive. Glory, check for breathing. When someone's unconscious, their pulse is very faint."

Glory layed tsunami down in what she hoped was a more comfortable position. She felt the seawings nose, and discovered that one of her nostrils had been slit. But she couldn't feel any breathing. Everyone else was silent, waiting on her. She didn't want to tell them bad news.

Glory's heart began to hammer in her chest. She covered tsunamis nose, trying to feel anything. She couldn't believe tsunami was dead, there had to be something.

"Glory?" Whispered sunny.

Glory shook her head.

"Just a minute." She said. She frantically covered tsunamis mouth and nose with one talon, and tried to feel a pulse with the other. Nothing.

"What do you feel?" Asked starflight.

"Nothing." Snapped glory. She was quickly becoming more and more worried, like she had only just now seen tsunamis condition. And with each passing second, dread began to sweep through her. She gave up on the pulse and tried to feel movement in the chest.

"Glory, describe it to me,". Said starflight, "what do you feel?"

Glory tensed. She didn't move. She looked down at the little glowing pinpricks that were tsunami. "Glory?" Asked starflight, with a quiver in his voice.

"I…. don't feel anything." Said glory. Fatespeaker gasped, sunny moaned. She buried her little head into starflight. Glory felt her eyes sting and had to blink away tears. It all came crashing down on her, that tsunami was dead.

"This is all my fault." Said sunny, "it's my fault we went on this trip, it's my fault we were captured. Why couldn't I have just stayed in the rainforest?" she sniffled. Starflight pulled her in closer, trying to be reassuring.

"Don't say that." He said, "it's not your fault." His voice cracked and he had to stop to clear his throat. "It's just…. bad luck. It's not your fault."

Glory was still sitting by tsunami, holding her face. She went to wipe her eyes when she suddenly felt a twitch. She stopped, and held still to make sure she hadn't imagined it. After a few seconds, tsunami twitched again, then moaned. Glory stepped back, almost running into the wall.

"Starflight, set some of those scrolls on fire!" She said.

Fatespeaker and sunny quickly swept together a pile of the papers and directed him. With a puff of flame, the cell was aglow and they all turned to see tsunami blinking back into consciousness.

"Tsunami!" Squealed sunny, "your okay!"

Tsunami looked tired, and she grimaced as she tried to sit up.

Sunny was hugging starflight, because she couldn't hold tsunami. Now she had tears of relief flowing down her face. "Oh I'm so glad you're alive tsunami, I thought we had lost you."

Tsunami squinted at her.

"Sunny?" She asked, "am I alive?" She tried to sit up again, but glory gently held her down.

"Yes, you're alive. I may have suffocated you into consciousness, I'm sorry, but thank the moons you're alive."

Tsunami groaned and let her head flop back down.

"I hurt." She mumbled, "so bad."

Glory could tell by her voice that she was in a daze. She wished she could help, but all she could do was stare. Tsunami was cut and gashed almost anywhere a knife blade would go. It was a wonder she hadn't died of blood loss. "I'm thirsty too." She mumbled. Her eyes stared aimlessly past sunny, like she was staring off into space.

"Don't worry. That one skywing, Corey, he should be back with water. Sometime." Said sunny.

"Then we could try to clean those cuts." Said glory.

Tsunami blinked.

"Corey." She mumbled. "Corey … Clay." She blinked several times, seeming to come back into reality. "Clay!" She said, "I saw clay! He's… he's alright, I saw him. He's okay."

"Oh thank goodness." Said sunny. The fire was starting to burn out, and Fatespeaker went to throw on another scroll.

"Don't,". Said glory, "we need to save those for emergencies only."

"I've got it." Said tsunami. As the flames died out, her scales began to glow. But something was wrong.

"Tsunami," Said Fatespeaker, "where… are your scales?"

Glory blinked, and looked at tsunami. Tsunami looked at herself too. It only took a moment, then she groaned and covered her head with her wings. Half of tsunamis fluorescent scales were gone. They had been cut right out of her skin, leaving dark bloody holes in her hide. Her whole left side was dark. Everyone watched as tsunami slowly inspected herself, in shock at what had happened to her.

"No, no, this can't be happening," she mumbled, "I can't lose those scales, I just started speaking aquatic! How am I supposed to communicate with anyone?"

Glory reached out and took her talons.

"Tsunami," glory said, bringing her eyes back to her and away from the horrific injuries, "try to get some rest. Don't think about it, it will only hurt you more."

Tsunami slumped as tears began to leak from the corners of her eyes.

"I am going to kill that skywing." she whispered. But glory knew she wouldn't. She couldn't, she couldn't even stand up right now.

"I know you will." she said, "but right now, we have to figure out how to get out of here. Just get some rest, you need it."

Tsunami slowly nodded. It was unnerving to see her so badly beaten down like this. It only strengthened her resolve to escape. She turned away from tsunami.

"Okay starflight," she said, "lets see what you can do about this chain."

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**Thanks for reading. Please review. Should I change the summary? I feel like it dosent fit somehow. I guess I'll have to think about that.**


	4. Chapter4

**Okay, it's Friday. That means another chapter. Sorry this one is late in the day, life got in the way. **

**Something I want to point out: this is a prewritten story, but I never wrote an ending to it. Don't worry, I will get that done, but that's part of the reason why I only update once a week. It has been a long time since I have read wof, and when you come back to continue on an older story it gets hard to recapture the same tone as when you first started out. But I will try my hardest.**

**Next, the summary. I'm not good at summary's, or titles. I want to change the summary, but I'm not sure how to do it. Any suggestions are appreciated.**

**Finally, to my one and only reader, queenglorythefirst, thank you so much. You have no idea how happy I was to see your review, it literally made my day. I love how you go through and point out all the things that stand out to you in each chapter, it really helps me to see what I'm doing right and wrong. **

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Clay was pacing restlessly in his cell. He made laps around the oak table in the center, going all the way to the wall before turning and following it. He was going crazy, he knew it. Tsunami had told him to try to escape, but he couldn't think of how. Starflight was the one who was good at thinking of things, clay was just some helpful brawn. Now he wished like everything that he was with them, dreading what was happening to them while he wore down his claws from his endless circles.

Just as she had said, clay had not heard tsunami scream. That had both comforted, and worried him as he had waited. But then, long after she had gone, the skywings had walked past, dragging her across the floor. He had called her name, tried to touch her as she was drug past, but there hadn't been a response. She looked for all the world as though she were dead. The only thing that would have said otherwise was the fact that scarlet had loudly proclaimed that she wasn't done with the seawing yet. Now there was just a trail of blood and blue scales to show their passing, it was again as if no one had been there.

The torches outside his cell were beginning to sputter, one had already gone out. It was getting dark, and he had no idea what time it was.

Clay couldn't help but feel like he had let the others down, like he was betraying them even now. Perhapse it wouldn't have been so bad if he had been working up a clever escape plan, like tsunami had said he should, but instead she had been beaten and cut to peices while his stupid brain stayed as unhelpful as ever. It made him angry, and filled him with a strange feeling, like coiled, unreleased energy that continued to build inside him. He wanted to run, to scream, to bite something so hard his teeth broke. He wanted to cry, but none of those things could help him.

On his next lap, he stopped to study the door again. He had done this a dozen times, but nothing came to his mind as he studied the construction.

The door was made from wrought iron, but the lock was mostly cast. He didn't know how he knew the difference between the two, most likely one of the few basic things he remembered from training with the other dragonets under the mountain. The lock had a narrow opening on it, meant for a spear blade to enter and work the locking mechanism. The lock was big enough that the entire spear blade could fit inside and rotate to turn something, which raised a vertical iron bolt and allowed the door to swing free. The hinges were cast iron bolts pointing upward with the door frame set down onto them.

He stared at the rusted brown iron, hoping maybe some other detail would pop out at him, something that would help him to come up with a plan.

But nothing did, and no plan came forward.

He groaned and pushed his head into the bars. He tried to concentrate as hard as he could, he begged himself to think of something.

But he couldn't.

He didn't know how long he stood there, but after a while he heard footsteps. He looked up to see a big skywing with a bundle of unlit torches under one arm. Clay watched him as he lit the torches from the two still burning and replaced the old ones. The skywing was bigger than corey, or scarlet, or ciel. He had to be shale, corey's brother and the blacksmith. Shale didn't look at him, he took the two dying torches and snuffed them out with his talons. Then he packed up the torches and was gone, back down the tunnel.

Clay went back to pacing around the cell. He made several laps before shale was back. This time shale had a dead pig and a spear. Clay watched him unlock the door and step inside. Shale closed the door behind him, and like a dog herding sheep, he kept himself between clay and the door.

"Hungry?" he asked. There was no emotion in his voice. He looked and sounded tired, but other than that, no expression.

"No." said clay, "I'm not."

"Too bad." said shale. He dropped the pig on the table and went back to the door. Clay whatched him lock it and walk away. He was alone again. Clay looked at the pig. His stomach growled, but he didn't feel like eating. Instead, he curled up in the corner of his cell and tried to sleep. But he knew that sleep would never come.

\--

Glory didn't know how long they worked on the chain, but it felt like days. It took forever before starflight was able to heat the metal enough to shape it, and then when they began to hammer on the glowing steel there was little progress and a lot of noise. They took turns with the rock, each trying to be as quiet as they could, but had to work fast as the metal cooled. Tsunami never slept, and instead tried to provide what light she could. Starflight spent a lot of time trying to catch his breath and cool himself down. The water they were supposed to be given never appeared, which meant that they were totally undisturbed, although everyone's ears were anticipating the sound of rushing footsteps at any minute.

After what had to be several hours, starflights flames sputtered and died out. He coughed harshly for a minute in the dim light of tsunamis scales.

"What's wrong?" asked sunny, "are you okay starflight?"

Starflight was breathing hard. He shook his head, coughed again, and rasped,

"No." his voice was cracked and gravely, it was painful to listen to. Glory had never thought of what constant use of fire would do to the throat of a dragon. "I think I'm out of fire," he grated, "and my throat is killing me."

Fatespeaker tried to grab the chain, and dropped it as she burned her talons.

"Let it cool off," said glory, "it's not hot enough to hammer on anyway."

Fatespeaker tried to suck on the burn, but the muzzle wouldn't let her.

"Now what do we do?" she asked.

Glory peered at the chain in the dim light, then looked at her shackles. The end had definitely changed shape, but it was still too wide and lumpy.

"We can grind it against the rock. It will be slow, and hard going, but maybe it will work. There's nothing else we can do at the moment. I wish I knew how long we have been at this, scarlet could be back at any minute."

Sunny let out a big yawn, slightly muffled by the muzzle. It was contagious, fatespeaker yawned, so did starflight, and then glory felt the urge to do so herself. After a second of fighting it, she relented, and suddenly realized how tired she was. She rubbed her forehead, trying to think of what to do now.

"I'm guessing it's sometime early in the morning." she said, "and scarlet, being ex royalty of her caliber, I'd say she will wake up late in the morning, maybe early noon. We will probably be visited by Corey with a bucket of water first, if he ever shows up."

"So what are you saying?" asked starflight.

"I think, as much as i hate the idea, that we should get some sleep. Somebody can stay up and file on the chain, someone can keep watch, and we can rotate. Anyone disagree?"

There was silence. She nodded.

"Okay, starflight, fatespeaker and tsunami, you three get some sleep. We'll try to keep it down. Me and Sunny will wake you two when it's your turn."

"I can pull watch." mumbled tsunami. She was lying on her left side, as if hiding the missing fluorescent scales. She was breathing laboriously, and in the dim light glory could see black bruises and blood clots where the chain had bitten her, undoubtedly bruising her ribs, maybe even breaking a few. Her scales looked unnaturally pale, her breath gurgled a bit and her eyes were dazed looking. She was in no shape to do anything, she should be asleep now, resting her battered frame. But tsunami was tough, she was beaten, but not broken. And she wasn't ready to be treated that way. She still wanted to play her role in protecting her friends, which heartened glory considerably. Tsunami was still being tsunami, and it gave a moral boost that glory definitely needed.

"We will wake you for third watch. But for now, please try to sleep."

Tsunami nodded faintly and closed her eyes.

\--

It was several hours later. The cell was dark and quiet. Everyone was asleep, except for glory and sunny. Glory was absently grinding the broken chain link against the stone floor, although she wasn't sure if she was filing down the iron or the rock. The chain made a harsh scraping sound against the rock as she drug it back and forth. Every now and then she would stop and try to fit it into the lock, and each time she was disappointed. One of the rocks would have filed down faster, but none of them were the right size. After a while, sunny spoke up, startling her as she said,

"Can I have a try?"

She stopped, and looked across the cave at the small sandwing. Sunny was barely visible as her golden scales reflected tsunamis dim glow.

Glory straightened up and stretched. Her arm and shoulder were sore, and she took a second to stretch them.

"Sure." She said, "but you're gonna have to catch it." Sunny nodded and held out her talons. Glory tossed the chain gently, and it clattered dully as sunny caught it. Behind her, tsunami twitched and moaned softly, then resettled. Sunny took the chain and set to filing the broken end link.

"Thanks." She said, "it was starting to drive me crazy, having nothing to do."

Glory nodded and yawned.

"I'm surprised you didn't fall asleep. I know I'm about to."

Sunny shook her head, but kept her eyes on her work.

"There's no way I can sleep." She said, "I'm too scared, and worried. I don't know how you can sleep at a time like this."

"Well it's not easy,". Glory said, keeping her voice low so as not to disturb the others, "but it has to be past midnight, maybe even sunrise. I have no idea. But being awake that long really weighs on you."

Sunny shook her head.

"Maybe." she said, "i mean, i guess you have a point. I am tired, but the idea of sleep is just wrong."

"What's on your mind?" asked glory as she laid down.

Sunny stopped for a moment and sighed. She didn't look up, and instead began grinding away on the chain, leaning into the task.

"I'm scared." she said.

"Understandable." said glory, "I'm scared too. But I don't see how there's anything else I can do right now."

Sunny shook her head.

"It's more than that." she said, "I'm scared about what might happen to you guys. And it's weird to me, because when we were in scarlets prison i was worried, but not scared. I believed nothing truly bad could happen to us because of the prophecy. But now, well, look at tsunami. I couldn't help what happened to starflight, but that was an accident. Scarlet did that to tsunami, and the only reason she isn't dead is because scarlet wants to hurt her again. I dont have the reassurance that I did back in scarlets palace, I know something bad can actually happen to us. It already has, to tsunami, and who knows what horrible thing she is doing to poor clay right now."

"Tsunami said she saw clay, and that he was alright." Glory said, "which now that i think about it, that's probably on purpose. Scarlet wants him to watch us suffer and be just fine himself."

"That dosen't make me feel any better." said sunny. She shivered, "but you're probably right. Poor clay must be going crazy with worry."

"Hey, look on the bright side," said glory, "at least he's okay."

"Physically, not mentally." said sunny. She stopped and wiped her eyes. "I think he may be in as much pain as tsunami is, maybe more. Tsunami is tough, she can handle cuts and bruises. Clay could too, but he must feel as though he is betraying us right now. I just wish I could talk to him."

Glory nodded. That sounded just like clay, and if she ever saw him then she would have to try to say something that would put his mind at ease.

Sunny sighed again, still running the chain over the rock floor.

"Also, I can't help but feel this is all my fault. None of you wanted to go on this trip, and I kept arguing until we did. If i would have just been quiet, none of this would have happened."

Glory shook her head.

"No sunny, don't think that. You were right, it was good to go and meet with the other kingdoms, we were just being lazy and selfish."

"But scarlet-"

"No, scarlet was going to come back sometime anyway. It was inevitable. Frankly sunny, I'm just glad it happened while we were together, so we could help each other. It's terrible that we have to see this happen to each other, but imagine if we were alone. Imagine that clay or tsunami wanted to go home and visit their families, and scarlet caught them then. Can you imagine what it would feel like for them then? To be truly alone? Im just glad that i can be here to try to help them anyway i can."

Sunny sniffed and wiped her eyes again.

"But still." she said, "what if we can't help? We can't help poor deathbringer. What if we can't help each other?"

Glory felt a pain in her chest as she remembered deathbringer. It hurt to remember the sight of the spear burying itself in his back, and of his still form falling to earth. She tried to bring her mind away, to think about something else.

"Glory," said sunny.

"Yeah?"

"Im especially worried for you. Scarlet was going to take you today until tsunami got in the way. When she comes back, I'm afraid she will take you."

Glory felt a chill go down her spine.

"I think you're right." she said, "it would make sense. But don't worry, I'll be okay. Tsunamis not the only one who can take a beating."

"But her scales-" said sunny, then she stopped herself, like she was trying not to give glory more reason to be afraid.

"Yes, they took tsunamis glowy scales. Part of them. But i dont think scarlet will skin me alive. Yet. I wouldn't survive, and she wants us to stick around for a while."

Sunny groaned and covered her face with her wings.

"I wish you hadn't said that." she murmured, "how can you sleep with thoughts like that?"

Glory looked at her shackled talons, pondering that question. There was a long period of silence. Sunny had stopped working with the chain, and now her ears rang in the total silence. After a few minutes, she said,

"Well, there's nothing else I can do. You have our escape attempt in your talons, and I don't want to face scarlet as a tired wreck."

Sunny sighed and picked up the chain again. She went back to work.

"I guess you're right." she said.

Glory watched her for a few minutes. After a while she said,

"You know sunny, i don't believe we have ever carried on a conversation this long. Just between us. It's always been mixed in with the rest of the group."

Sunny stopped and looked at her.

"I think your right." she said, "in fact, i don't think i have held a conversation with any of you this long. Well, maybe with clay and starflight, but not you or tsunami."

Glory felt some guilt at that.

"I'm sorry." she said, "I should talk to you more often, but I'm always preoccupied."

"It's okay," said sunny, "I understand. You've been very busy running a kingdom and helping us save the world. You don't get very many chances to slow down."

Glory nodded.

"Maybe so, but that's no excuse. If we get out of here, I'm going to make it mandatory law that we sit down and chat every now and then. That would actually be a very good idea i think."

Sunny smiled, and nodded.

"I do too. When we get out, I think you should make it so we all have to sit down and talk. It would help us to work things out."

Glory smiled back.

"You know, that's another thing. Even though you're scared sunny, you still say 'when'. You believe that we will get out of here, despite everything. That's very encouraging."

Sunny looked back down at her work and shrugged.

"Well, I guess I can't help it. It's who I am. I can't help but to try to never lose hope."

"I know," said glory, "and no matter what happens here, never let that change. Don't let yourself lose hope sunny."

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**I will update again next Friday. Thanks for reading, I will continue work on writing the ending and will hopefully have that done soon.**


	5. Chapter5

**Alright, I updated a tad early because I'm going to be busy on Friday. I am making progress on the ending, but it is still hard going. **

**Thank you queenglorythefirst, (does it ever get old to constantly hear me say thank you? Well too bad, thanks anyway :) ) the summary you suggested was excellent. I read through it several times before I updated the old summary. **

**To my new reviewer, alpaca, ( alpaca?! Interesting, I live next to an alpaca farm) I'm glad you enjoy this story. I am flattered that you want me to include your character, but unfortunately I don't think it will work. This is a prewritten story, and at this point I think it would be too late to add them. Sorry for the disappointment, but I would be glad to give suggestions and pointers if you would like.**

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At some point, glory had fallen asleep. She hadn't realized she had nodded off, but the next thing she knew the cave was flooded with light and starflight was jabbing her with his wing. She lurched to her feet and looked around. Scarlet and ciel were outside the bars, corey was opening the door. Torches were mounted to the walls outside, and ciel held another in her talons. Glory looked around at the other dragonets, making sure everyone was okay. Tsunami was struggling to stand, fatespeaker and starflight were standing close together and away from the bars. Sunny was sitting in her corner, concealing the chain behind her.

"Well good morning everyone," said scarlet with a pleasant look on her face, "I hope you all slept well, although I heard that corey never did bring you any water, very negligent on his part, I would say."

"Hey," said Corey as he opened the door and stepped inside with two wooden buckets, "it was supposed to be Ciels turn, so she could make sure none of them died."

Scarlet waved him away.

"Ciel had some more important things to look into, some interesting studies on seawing scales. You could have picked up the slack."

Corey harrumphed and set the buckets down in front of the dragonets. Fatespeaker grabbed one and guided starflight to it. He drank three quarters of the water in a few seconds, and gave a hoarse cough.

"I still think she could have done it and had plenty of time." said corey.

Scarlet shot him a dangerous look.

"Corey," she hissed, "the only reason I'm not peeling your eyelids off right now is because i'm already busy with them." she pointed to the dragonets, "but don't tempt me further. Do as you're told, by any of us. You are out-ranked by everyone here. Understand?"

Corey swallowed hard and nodded. Scarlets pleasant attitude returned as swiftly as it had left. "Good, that's settled. Ciel, do tell me, what did you learn about those glowy scale?"

Ciel watched tsunami, noting the glare she was receiving. If looks could kill, ciel would be screaming in agony.

"Well, the interesting thing is, they aren't actually scales. They are more of a tough membrane, like cartilage, with a thin outer layer of a strong, protective material that resembles the stuff our claws are made of. I was able to scrape the softer membrane away from the tougher outside portion, and it appears that it's the softer membrane that does the glowing. The harder part is just a shell, to protect it. Picture a candle behind glass, and that's basically how it is all hooked together."

Scarlet nodded approvingly.

"How interesting. Have you found out what makes it glow yet?"

Ciel shook her head.

"No I haven't." She was still watching tsunami, who was breathing hard and clenching her jaw angrily. Glory wished she didn't have to hear this disturbing account about dissecting her body parts. But apparently scarlet was going to make sure that she heard every word. "I'm not sure how that works, but i do know that after a while they stop glowing. I'm not sure if it's because it needs support from the body to live, like an organ, or if it's sort of like a sealed vessel, that once opened allows the contents to evaporate. I will need to study it some more."

Glory didn't like the look ciel threw tsunami, like she was an interesting test subject. She instinctively stepped in front of her, slightly spreading her wings to hide the seawing from sight. Scarlet cooed.

"Aw, how cute, the little rainwing is defending her friend. Well you don't need to worry about her today, because today the party is all about you. Isn't that thrilling?"

"Because of you, I hate that word." said glory. Scarlet laughed, a genuine laugh that showed she actually thought that was funny.

"Oh my," she said, "I'm afraid I have my own trademark then. Corey, bring her out of there."

Behind her, glory heard tsunami struggling to rise. She turned and said,

"Stay down tsunami, there's nothing more you can do."

Tsunami looked up from where she was concentrating on getting her legs to work.

"Yeah right, I'm still breathing, aren't I?" she gritted her teeth and hoisted her upper body off the floor.

"Tsunami," said glory, "don't do this, they would kill you this time. Please, just let it go, help the others instead."

"Oh I will," said tsunami, "right after I am finished helping you. Now stay right where you are, when he reaches for the chain I'll go for his wrists, you take the neck."

Glory looked across the cell where corey was coming through the door. She knew tsunami was serious, and she also knew that tsunami wouldn't survive a fight with the skywing. Glory sighed, and stepped away from tsunami. "Where are you going?" tsunami demanded.

Glory walked towards corey, and waited for him to unlock the shackles. There was no way tsunami could reach them, no way she could attempt to help her.

"Im sorry tsunami, but Im not going to let you kill yourself in a vain attempt to protect me. There's no way you can help me right now, and you know it."

Tsunami looked torn, maybe even hurt. She tried to close the distance between them, but stumbled and barely managed to stay upright. The movement and chains had reopened several injuries which began to bleed fresh crimson onto her already blood dirty scales. "Just stay, help the others. I'll be alright."

Scarlet sniggered, but didnt say anything.

Tsunamis hard expression broke, and she sat down. She wiped what may have been a tear from her eye as corey unhooked the chain and led glory out of the cell. There were no more words between them after that. Glory walked slowly behind the skywings as they left the cave. She didn't look back.

\--———————————————————

Clay was waiting at the bars when they led glory past. She blinked in a second of recognition, but didn't come to him. Ciel blocked the way with coreys spear.

"Hey clay," she said.

Clay gave a small, scared wave. He wanted to ask if she was okay, but he knew that would be stupid, because she clearly wasnt going to be.  
"Tsunamis okay," she said, "everyone else is too, don't worry."

"I'm sorry." he said, "I cant … I cant-"

"Clay, there's nothing to be sorry for." she said. He followed her on his side of the bars. "This isn't your fault. We're not mad at you for anything."

"But I can't get out." he said, "I can't help you-"

"You're trying to, I know you are. You've been trying to think of something, I can tell you haven't slept. Just remember clay, your not letting us down-"

"Okay!" said scarlet, "that's enough encouraging words for now, I swear that I am seconds from throwing up. What is with you dragonets and all the mushy feelings anyway?"

Glory glared at her as she was drug away from him.

"Don't worry clay," she said, "just keep trying."

\--————————————————————-

Clay did keep trying. He circled his cell again, starting his endless pacing. After a while, he began to pace the opposite direction, hoping that the change would help him to think. But it didn't. He knew what he wanted to accomplish, to gain freedom, but he couldn't think of how to get there. It was like a wall had been built in his mind. There was no way over it, or around it. He was stuck on one side.

Clay circled back to the door, grabbed the bars and shook it. The door rattled loudly, but remained just as locked. Somewhere off in the tunnel, he thought he heard glory cry out. Clay hoped it was his imagination, but he knew it wasn't. Horrible images paraded through his mind about what terrible things were happening to glory. He growled in frustration, and shook the door harder. It rattled loudly in protest, and clay roared at it. He shook the door for all he was worth, he roared in utter helpless frustration. He wished he could see glory, tell her he was sorry, take whatever pain she was experiencing himself, and protect the others. It was a wild, pent up energy he was feeling, he wished he could fight something, break something, tear out the bars with his talons alone. Clay had never truly felt anger, or panic before. This blend of the two was a terrifying new experience for him, and he wished he could break away from the claustrophobic feeling, but it had him firmly in its grasp. He was still shaking the door, when somebody started shouting over the noise.

"Hey, hey! Knock it off! You're going to bring the whole mountain down on us!" clay stopped, and looked to see shale standing outside the bars. The big skywing glared down at him in annoyance. "Listen," shale said, "I get it that she wants you to go crazy while she kills your friends, but could you do it a little quieter?"

Clay was breathing hard, and shaking. Shale was watching, as if waiting for a reply.

"How?" Asked clay, "how could I? She's hurting my friends and I can't help them. What can I do?" Clay was more or less talking to himself, but shale shrugged.

"Well, escape is pointless. Why don't you eat that pig I gave you? It's going bad, I can smell it."

"I can't eat." clay said. He turned away and started pacing again. "I can't eat, I can't sleep, not while this is happening to them."

"Why do you care?" asked shale, "their not related to you, they're not your species. Look at yourself mudwing, you're a wreck. Why don't you calm down, eat something, maybe sleep, and be thankful that the she-devil has decided to spare you for whatever twisted reason."

"But I can't!" clay wailed, "they're my friends! They're basically my family, I've lived with them my whole life! I love them as brothers and sisters, because that's what we are. In every way but our parents, we are siblings, and I'm their big brother. And now they're in trouble and I can't help them!"

Shale watched him pacing. He shook his head and rolled his eyes. From down the tunnel came a cry of pain. Clay flinched at the sound, and clawed at his ears.

"I don't get it." said shale. "You have a weird problem mudwing. When my family was tortured to death, I never thought twice about it."

Clay stopped and looked at him.

"Your … what?"

Shale shrugged.

"Yeah, you heard me. I was your age, maybe younger. I was in a prison just like this. No big deal. You have it easy, actually, because nothing will happen to you."

"But … why?"

Shale let out a big breath.

"Long story. In short, my father was a spy at the very beginning of the sandwing war. Scarlet arrested the whole family: me, my mom and dad, older sister and younger brother. She wanted to know where my father's contacts were hiding, and when he wouldn't talk, she tortured my mother to death. He still didn't talk, so she started on my sister, working down the line. My father broke down and told her everything, then she killed him and my sister."

"Thats horrible." said clay, "how did you-"

"Handle the crushing trauma of my family's demise before my eyes? Let me tell you something mudwing, I was perfectly happy that I made it out of there alive. Both me and my idiot brother survived, and for that I am thankful. You should be thankful that you're being spared."

"But what about your family?" asked Clay, "didn't you care?"

"My family was a bunch of idiots." said shale, "they went against scarlet and thought they could get away with it. And why should I feel bad for them? I nearly died for their mistake."

"But why would you still follow scarlet? Even now? She has no power, how can you still be loyal, and respect her."

There was a loud crash and a scream of agony from down the tunnel. Clay ground his teeth and covered his ears. Tears began to run down his face. Shale didn't even flinch.

"Trust me mudwing," he said, "I'm not down here in this stinking tunnel because I want to be, nor am I doing it for the glory of her ex-majesty. I have no loyal feelings for that demon, but I'm here because she has something that I want very badly. My idiot brother followed my lead, as you can see, but he's only here because he was too empty headed to think for himself. I'm still following her because she is the only hope I have of finding it."

"What's ''it" ?'' asked clay. Shale turned to walk away.

"And that's where we get to the point when that's none of your business." he said, "just listen to what I said. Be thankful you're alive, and don't worry about them. Worry about yourself, and how you're getting out of here."

"But- wait!" Clay said, "how do I … how?"

But shale was gone, and clay was just as stuck as he was before. He growled and held his face in his talons.

What was he going to do? He wasn't like shale, he wasn't going to abandon the others to save himself. What was the point of living if none of the others survived?

He began pacing again, trying to think. He could feel panic building up inside, he knew he was seconds from losing control of himself. Clay took another two laps around the cell, then pressed his head into the wall.

"Think of something." he whispered, "anything, please, just one idea."

But his mind was still blank.

He went back to cricling, stopped and inspected the door again. Still the same details, vertical deadbolt and simple set-down hinges. If only he had a piece of metal to break the hinges, or pry them apart. But he didn't have a piece of metal, or a rock. He went back to pacing. He circled the cell again and again. His tension built, anxious energy coiled in on itself, seeking release. Finally, after several more laps, clay screamed and charged the door. He connected head first in a huge metallic crash. The force of the blow made stars explode across his vision, and sent him tumbling to the ground. Clay laid in a dazed heap on the floor. His vision swam, and his head pounded with white hot pain. The door was still standing, just as solid and unbroken as ever. Clay groaned and fought the urge to throw up. He could already feel a bruise on his forehead, and blood streamed down the side of his face from a huge gash. He didn't try to get up. Instead, he curled up into a ball, and cried. There was nothing else he could do.

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**Next upload is Friday as usual. In the mean time, I'll keep working on the ending. As always, please review and tell me what you think. Thanks for reading.**


	6. Chapter6

**And it's Friday. That means more updates.**

**Thank you to my reviewers this week, all two of you.**

**-dragon349295**

**Holy shnikes, that was fast, I uploaded, went to bed and the next morning there was a review. Great way to start the day. Question: what do you mean by "the" wings of fire reviewer? I'm confused.**

**Peril dosent make an appearance in this story, I'm sorry. I can only juggle so many characters.**

**-queenglorythefirst, sorry about your precalculas, you have my pity. I have not taken calculus, and barely limped through algebra. Fortunately, wood shop and CNC counts as math credits, so I'm off the hook for this year.**

**I take encouragement from your reviews, because to be honest, I'm having a rough time writing the ending to this. And with each update I get closer to having to put up those new chapters. **

***mild panic***

**I don't know where alpaca went, but if you're still out there buddy, my offer still stands. I would be glad to help you out with your character and story's.**

**Okay, enough blabber. Here's chapter six**

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A long time later, clay was still lying on the floor when he heard footsteps and chains. He sat up, still a little woozy from his collision with the door, and saw scarlet and ciel coming down the tunnel. Corey followed behind them, leading glory. Clay's stomach dropped when he saw her. Glory was staggering behind Corey on three legs, her scales were white in pain. The skin on her forehead was split open, and dried blood glued one of her eyes shut. Just like tsunami, she was covered in teeth, claw, whip and blademarks. When she saw him, clay wanted to hide. This was his fault, she was hurt because he hadn't tried hard enough.

"Glory…," he said, "I'm so sorry."

She stopped walking. Glory was so close he could smell the metallic coppery scent of fresh blood.

"Clay," she mumbled, "it's not your fault."

"Hey!" barked scarlet, "what do you think you're doing? Keep walking."

Clay reached through the bars and grabbed the chain, pulling it back and wrapping it around the bars in case corey tried to pull her away. He felt a new wave of tears beginning to flow down his cheeks.

"I'm so sorry." he said again, "I should have tried harder."

"Stop, Clay." she said, "it's really not your fault. It's Scarlet's fault." she leaned against the bars and peered at him through her good eye. "What happened to you?" she asked, "your face is all bloody."

"The door," said clay.

Glory took a second to process that, then a tiny smile appeared on her face.

"Oh clay, thank you for trying." she said, "I know it hurts you that you can't help, but it helps me feel better to see that you're trying."

Glory spoke in a loud whisper. It hurt her to talk, and she looked to be hovering on the edge of consciousness.

"I'm not trying hard enough." he said, "I can't get out."

"We'll make it." she said, "just hold on and keep trying, and-"

Suddenly a rock cracked into glorys head. She reeled backwards, then tipped over on her side. Clay grabbed the bars and screamed her name, but there was no response. Glory was completely unresponsive. With a crash, a second rock hit the bars beside clays head. He jumped back, and saw scarlet ready to throw a third stone, aimed at corey.

"I said to keep going. What are we waiting for?"

Corey jumped into action and began to drag glorys limp body away. Scarlet watched as she was drug past, then lazily chucked aside the rock. "Let that be a lesson to you mudwing." she said, and turned to follow the others down the tunnel.

Clay stood in shock for a long time. He couldn't wrap his mind around what had just happened for several minutes. Then he snapped.

Clay screamed, and rushed the table in the center of the room. He grabbed the pig and threw it as hard as he could. The carcass made a meaty thud as it bounced off the wall.

Clay rammed the table, flipping it over, and began to break it apart with his talons. He screamed, and roared, and threw broken bits of table everywhere. When he had smashed the oak into pieces, he began to pick up the boards and tables legs, hurling them at the wall with all the force he could muster. When he got tired of that, he fell upon the pig, and tore it to shreds, again throwing the pieces everywhere. Clay was scared, and angry, and screaming with loss. He had never felt this way, normally his calm, levelheaded temperament wouldn't even let him consider an outburst like this.

In the end, clay held his head in his arms and cried, rocking back and forth. It was his fault, all his fault that glory had been hit by the rock. It was his fault that she may be dead now. It was his fault tsunami had been beaten so severely, and it was his fault that the others were about to suffer the same fate.

After sobbing uncontrollably for a long time, clay finally sat up. His cell was a mess. Splintered wood and pieces of pig were scattered all over. The sight only made him feel more hopeless. He moaned wiped his eyes. He looked at the bars, still as unyielding as ever, the door, still as sturdy as it was engineered to be.

Then he saw something. A board was lying at the bottom of the door. It was partly underneath the frame, partly outside of the cell. It took him a minute of staring, and then he lept into action. At long last, clay had an idea.

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Fatespeaker hammered on the chain with as much force as she could muster. They had decided that silence was no longer an issue, so long as they made progress. They could fake trying to break their chains against the bars if someone came to investigate. After all, the skywings couldn't take away the bars and chains, all they could really do is threaten them if they weren't quiet.

The sound of the rock on steel made Fatespeakers ears ring, and the repeated motion made her arm sore.

Starflight was cooling his throat with the last of the water, tsunami and sunny were keeping watch. The torches outside the cave had burned out several hours before, and they were once again working by the dim light of tsunamis scales.

After a few more minutes, the medal was too cold to hammer anymore. Fatespeaker set aside the rock and stretched her arm.

"How does it look?" Asked sunny.

Fatespeaker leaned down and peered at the piece of chain.

"I think it might work now. I'll try again when it's cool enough to touch."

Sunny wrapped her wings around herself and shivered in the cold air. She was looking out of the bars into the tunnel beyond.

"Oh I hope it works. I can't stand to think about what terrible things are happening to glory right now."

"It'll work,". Said Fatespeaker, "I can feel it, this time it will."

"Does anyone here know how to pick a lock though?" Asked starflight, "making the key is only half of the battle.

"I can do it." Said Fatespeaker, "back in the talons of peace it was one of the things they taught us. Part of being sneaky and mysterious, I guess."

Tsunami grunted as she shifted herself to sit up. She was still having a hard time breathing.

"Are you good at it?" She asked.

Fatespeaker ducked her head in slight embarrassment.

"Not really,". She said, "I wasn't very interested in picking locks. Or math. Or reading. If only my stupid visions would have told me about this, I would have studied harder."

" Well, none of us learned anything like that." Said tsunami, "so I guess you're our only hope."

"Oh, thank you for the encouragement," Said Fatespeaker, studying the lock, " not like I'm under enough pressure already."

"You can do it,". Said sunny, "I know you can."

"So do I,". Said starflight, "you've got this."

Fatespeaker smiled as she touched the chain, pulling her talon back when she found it was still too hot.

"I know I can. It's just going to take a little bit. For one thing, we never learned about locks like this. Who's ever heard of a spear blade as a key? It's weird."

"Were all of you taught how to do that?" Asked starflight, "I didn't think the talons of peace would do stuff like that."

"It wasn't a normal curriculum." Said Fatespeaker, "I think morrowseer had specifically told them to teach me. But they didn't try too hard, and I guess I didn't either."

Sunny sat up on her haunches, peering out of the cell.

"Hey, they're coming! Quick, hide the chain."

At her warning, Fatespeaker picked up the chain and tossed it before it burned her talons. Sunny grabbed it and hid it behind her as the orange torch light came around the corner in the tunnel.

All four of the skywings came in from the tunnel. Scarlet was in the lead with a torch, which she planted in the wall sconce.

Ciel and shale came in on either side, flanking her to stand like a barrier at the tunnel entrance. Last in was corey. Fatespeaker had to look away. She didn't want to see glory, or whatever may be left of her. The expression on Sunny's face was enough of a horror by itself.

"Well, hello again." said Scarlet, "that's two down, three to go. And I must admit, I'm a little excited about tomorrow's activities, I've never seen a nightwing bleed before."

Fatespeaker shuddered at the thought. "Corey, leave the rainwing out here, and open the door, would you?" said scarlet.

Corey took his spear from ciel and advanced on the door. He inserted the blade, turned it, and the door swung free. Behind him was shale, holding a metal band. Fatespeaker realized what they were going to do, and felt panic flash through her system.

"Starflight, they're going to muzzle you!" she hissed.

Tsunami forced herself to her feet, planting herself between the skywings and her friends. Corey stopped and leveled the spear at her, looking unsure. After a second of facing off, shale pushed Corey aside in annoyance and grabbed the spear. He turned it around so the blunt end was facing tsunami. Tsunami growled and went into a fighting stance.

Shale didn't even give her a second glance. He swung the spear with one arm, and sent the wooden handle smashing into tsunamis cracked ribs. Tsunami crumpled with a gasp of pain. It was an absolutely stunning blow that left tsunami shaking and briefly immobilized. Shale swept her aside effortlessly and continued toward starflight.

Fatespeaker tried the same thing tsunami had, but when shale raised the spear again, she realized there was nothing she could do. She backed off.

Then starflight was beside her. The blind nightwing opened his jaws and sent a huge cloud of flame at shale.

The big skywing jumped back, then ducked around the flames. Again he swung the spear, smashing it unto starflights jaw.

Starflight staggered back and fell with a cry of pain. In a second, shale had shoved fatespeaker aside and tackled him. Shale grabbed his jaws, forced them together and clamped the steel band around them. There was a loud metallic click, and starflight was effectively muzzled.

"Very good shale," purred scarlet, "I think your brother needs to take some lessons."

Shale rolled his eyes, and turned the pear back around. He pushed fatespeaker aside once more and went to leave, but stopped. Tsunami was once again standing in his way. She was swaying unsteadily, and her eyes watered. Her whole face was twisted in an angry grimace, and her breaths were shallow and hitched.

"Seawing," said shale, "step aside. There is no point in trying to fight me now."

Tsunami glared right back at him.

"What am I supposed to do?" she hissed, "sit back and let you all have your way? Not if I can help it."

"You cant." said shale, "it would be idiotic to fight me, your friends are already at our mercy, and fighting is pointless."

"Maybe," tsunami grunted, "but it would make me feel better."

Shale sighed, and started forward. Tsunami stood her ground. Fatespeaker didn't want to watch, but had no real choice.

Tsunami threw herself at shale, but the skywing had been waiting for the attack. He caught her, and pinned her to the floor with no effort.

"You dragonets just don't know when to quit, do you?" he said.

"No, they don't." said Scarlet, "but hey, at least they're predictable. Oh, shale, while you've got that annoying fish dragon under your talons, I seem to remember ciel saying something about needing fresh samples."

Fatespeaker and sunny gasped. Tsunami began to struggle harder. Shale growled in annoyance as scarlet tossed a small dagger to ciel.

"Go ahead and take what you want," she said, "I'll let you be the collector this time."

Ciel caught the blade and came into the cell. Tsunami kicked and bit, but shale didn't budge. Then ciel was there with the dagger, and tsunami roared as the blade dug into her scales. Fatespeaker, sunny and starflight sat petrified at the spectacle. Fatespeaker turned away, trying to drown out tsunamis painful roars. There was nothing she could do to save her seawing friend from the horrible brutality.

After what felt like forever, it was over. The skywings threw the limp form of glory into the cell, and walked away. They took the light with them. Now it was totally dark. Tsunami was breathing hard, and erratically. She was no longer visible in the gloom. Fatespeaker was still holding her ears. She wanted to curl up and cry, for tsunami and glory. Poor glory, who had walked off to her fate as calmly as she could, and for good old tsunami, who had tried to save them the only way she knew how.

It was absolutely horrifying for her. For all of them. Glory might be dead. Tsunami was horribly mauled. Clay was nowhere to be seen. The support of the group was missing, and it scared fatespeaker. Sweet, lovable Clay wasn't here to lift their spirits. Firm, sarcastic glory wasn't here to give them confidence. And as for strong, dependable, good old tsunami?

Never before had they heard tsunami cry.

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**Next update is Friday. I'll keep fighting with the ending. Please review.**


	7. Chapter7

**Friday again, the time flies.**

**I have not made any progress this week, life has been busy. I'm sorry but this chapter and the next will be shorter than normal. That's just the way it worked out when dividing up this old document.**

**However, I'm going to have a lot of free time these next few weeks, school has been canceled because of the Kung-flu, so maybe I will be able to make some headway. **

**-queenglorythefirst: wow, it's like you were competing with dragon2459-whatever the rest of those numbers are. Twenty minutes after I updated and BOOM! Thanks for your continued support.**

**-dragon349295: thank you for those points. If you do use some cues from this story, please tell me. I think it's cool that you would consider that, and I would love to read what you write with them.**

**-Guest reviewer: thank you for reviewing. I can see when a review is posted via email, but I cannot reply, per say. I replied in the comment section, so if you ever have questions then ask, and my answer should be in the comment section within half an hour. Or, if you have a phone, go to the AppStore and download the fanfiction app, (it's free) and then send me a PM. **

**Okay, on to the chapter.**

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The torches across the tunnel were beginning to sputter and die. The light was dim and flickering. But clay worked on, making headway in the gathering dark. Clay was using pieces of the broken table to make a crude lever. He had set one of the table legs beside the frame, and was using it to pivot a side brace. The brace was jammed under the doorframe, and now clay was pushing on it for all he was worth.

The door was rusted, due to the damp cave air, and the hinges were stiffly corroded together, making them hard to move. In addition to that, the door was heavy and awkward.

The main problem with lifting the door off its hinges however, was not a question of weight. Rather, the door had to be lifted straight up, or the angle would pinch the hinges and render it immovable. Clay had limited success in lifting the door, but he couldn't get it high enough. Every time he pushed down on the lever, the door would screech upward a few inches and then stop as his lever reached it's full extension.

After another failed attempt, clay shove the board farther under the frame and lifted up. The door started up again, and stopped in the same place. Clay gritted his teeth, squared his shoulders and heaved.

For several long seconds nothing happened. Then, the door squeaked and moved up a tiny fraction of an inch. Clay pulled, the board bowed and creaked.

The door creeped up a little more, and clay couldn't help but let out a short laugh when he saw how close he was to triumph.

Then the board cracked in two, and with a metallic bang the door fell back in place.

Clay lost his footing and tumbled over backwards. He sat up, still holding the broken board in his talons. He looked at it, then at the door. He growled in frustration, and tossed the wood aside. He set to looking for another suitable piece of timber.

A few seconds later, he heard talons on rock. Clay tried to look innocent as torchlight rounded the corner.

"What's with all the noise here?" asked scarlet. She peered through the bars at him, looking at the mess in the cell. "We're not trying to escape, are we? I see you have destroyed a perfectly good table. That doesn't seem very like you mudwing."

Clay didn't say anything. Behind scarlet, shale came in with a bundle of torches and began to replace the dying ones. "Shale, what do you think are the chances that this mudwing should escape? Should I place Corey on watch?"

Shale stopped what he was doing. He looked over at clay, at the door, and shrugged.

"Not likely. I wouldn't bother putting Corey on guard, although if you really feel the need for security, I would put either Ciel or myself on watch."

Scarlet shook her head.

"No, that won't do. Ciel is busy with her experiments, and you are much to helpful in the forge. But corey would probably fall asleep on watch."

"Most likely." shale agreed. He went back to placing the torches. "In the end, it might be more secure to leave him unguarded then to set Corey to watch him."

"Yes, you're right. I hate having to ask your advice, but i have so few other options. I suppose we could leave him unguarded." she leaned in and pointed at clay, "but don't get any ideas mudwing. You are too late to help them anyway. You're all on your own now."

And with that, she was gone, back down the tunnel. Shale was finishing his task, bundling up the unused torches. Clay sat down and tried to process what she had said.

"On my own?" he said, "what's that mean? Are they all gone?"

Shale didn't look at him. He said,

"No, not yet. As far as I know, the rainwing is dead and we just tore up the seawing. Although, I get the feeling she will survive that for now, but she may never be the same. Not like she has much longer."

"But the others?" said Clay, his voice rising a pitch, "what about them?"

Shale hefted the bundle of torches and started off down the tunnel.

"They're alive, and unharmed. Probably emotionally traumatized, but unharmed. Although, tomorrow is a different story. Who knows what the she-devil has planned."

"Wait!" Clay said, jumping to his feet and rushing to the bars, "please, let me out! I know you can, I know you hate scarlet too! I can help you look for whatever it is that she has!"

Shale stopped and looked at him. Clay could see him running through the possibilities in his mind, considering his proposition. But shale shook his head.

"Sorry mudwing. Until you get out of that cell, you're on your own."

And with that, he was gone.

* * *

It was nearly impossible to navigate the dark cell. Fatespeaker had never known a dark that was so physically crushing. The cell was cold, and damp, enough to make her shiver. Her species was capable of seeing in the dark, but there had to be a source of light for that to be possible. But here there was none. The gloom was claustrophobic, it felt like being submerged in a dark, cold ocean. It felt like she was drowning.

Another thing about the darkness, it made every sound painfully loud. Fatespeaker could hear the ragged, gurgled breathing of tsunami to her right. Beside her, starflight was breathing shallowly with a bruised jaw. Across the cave came the light breaths and quiet whimpers of sunny, who appeared to have cried herself to sleep.

Fatespeaker had tried to pick the lock. She really had, she put her full effort into the task. But the chain still wouldn't fit, it still wouldn't work the locking mechanism. Nevertheless, fatespeaker had kept trying even after it was obvious that it wouldn't work. In the end, she had thrown the chain in frustration. Cold waves of fear swept up and down her spine as she realized that they couldn't break free.

It felt like escape was a pointless endeavor, which would only wind up in more failure and pain. Apparently the others had reached a similar conclusion. No one spoke. No one did anything but lie still and breath.

At some point, starflight shifted, and his breaths became somewhat ragged. He was asleep. On one hand, fatespeaker couldn't see how anyone could sleep after what had happened, and yet, her eyes began to droop. Her body was exhausted from running on terrified adrenalin. She was hungry, uncomfortable, cold and scared. But she was tired. Eventually, she felt herself slipping away. Her body relaxed and her eyelids drew together. She was almost asleep when she heard tsunami.

"I'm sorry."

Fatespeaker blinked. She wasn't sure if she had heard that, or dreamed it.

"Tsunami?" she whispered, "was that you?"

There was a long silence.

"Yes." tsunami said.

"What… do you mean? Sorry for what?"

"I can't help you." whispered tsunami. There were tears in her voice, very uncharacteristic of her. Fatespeaker heard her shift, hiss in pain, and say, "I can't help any of you. I'm worthless. I fought as hard as I could, and it did nothing. I'm no help to you."

Fatespeaker shook her head. She wished she could see tsunami, maybe give her a reassuring hug. Which was a scary thought. Tsunami never needed a hug, ever.

"You did your best." said fatespeaker, "you tried your hardest tsunami, and that's more than we could ask of you."

"But it was pointless." said tsunami, "I only hurt myself. There was nothing gained."

"Tsunami, you did what you could. What you did was very brave, the sacrifice you made was a heroically selfless act."

"What sacrifice?" asked tsunami, "sacrifice involves getting something in return for what we lose. We gained nothing, and we're still losing."

"But tsunami, you bought us time. You saved glory from going first-"

"It doesn't matter." said tsunami. She coughed, and said, "glory is still hurt, maybe dead. And i'll never speak aquatic again. I didnt help you in any way. And I'm powerless to save anyone tomorrow."

Fatespeaker listened as her breath became erratic. Tsunami was crying. And it was terrifying. "I'm sorry." choked tsunami, "I'm so sorry."

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**Next chapter will be short too, then we should be back to normal. I'll get back to work on the ending. I'm trying to decide if I should update again sooner to make up for short chapters. I do have another wof peice, a one shot, the beginning of a story that I'm not going to write. I can post that sometime if I need to make more time for myself and give you something to chew on while waiting.**

**Alright, pt35 out.**


	8. Chapter8

**Okay, I'm back again. Here's the other short chapter. I haven't made any progress on the ending in these last three days, but hopefully tomorrow I will.**

**-dragon349296: I'm timing this next one. Who will review first? It's a race.**

**Btw I stopped by your YouTube channel, left a comment but I don't think it went through. I haven't heard any confirmation from you in the pm or review section, so I can only assume my phone didn't send the message(again!) but I am totally fine with you writing an au of this, and I can't wait to read it.**

**-queenglorythefirst: yeah, I'm getting so sick and tired of all the hype over this wuhang-flu. I personally believe that the media and state are overreacting, but that's just my opinion.**

**I'm glad you caught shales hesitation. I was afraid nobody would find that noteworthy.**

**-oragonking: new guy, welcome. Thanks for the like and follow, it's cool to see more people interested in my work.**

**-alpaca: your reviews keep popping up in my email, but for some reason I can't see them in the review section until, like, a week later. **

**Writing can be hard, and it's harder if you think your ideas are stupid. Trust me, I only began to seriously write when my sister stumbled upon some of my work and demanded to hear more. I may have stopped writing if she hadn't done that, because my ideas were dumb. But here's the thing, how are your ideas supposed to get better if you don't write them down?**

**Look, I would love to help. If you download fanfiction, it would be easier because I could more directly communicate. but if you can't or don't want to, that's fine. If you would like my help, just say so and I can work something out. If you would rather I stopped pestering you, then just tell me, and I can do that too.**

**(But I'm curious to know, what was the name of the character you wanted me to include?)**

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The next morning came much too soon. Fatespeaker had no idea if she slept or not. One minute it was dark, and then there was orange torch light flooding the cave.

"Alright, everyone up!" barked scarlet. She was loud, and appeared irritated. Not a good sign at all. Shale and Ciel unlocked the cell door and came trooping in. They stepped past glory's still body, and paused for a moment to look at tsunami. The seawing never tried to stand, or impede them. Ciel unlocked the chains from the wall and passed them to shale. Fatespeaker, starflight and sunny were drug out into the tunnel. Scarlet slammed the door behind the group. She took a minute to gaze at the still forms of glory and tsunami. Then she turned back to them.

"Lets be on our way. This time, I've got something special planned. Come along."

She set off down the tunnel, going the opposite direction of where she had taken tsunami and glory, the way Corey had gone to get that first bucket of water from the forge. Fatespaker began to quake in fear of what was going to happen to them.

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Clay hadn't had any luck. The cell door was too big and awkward to maneuver it off of its hinges. It didn't help that there was an iron frame across the top, which let him lift the door to just short of what he needed. Still he kept trying, because he couldn't think of anything else to do. Clay tried pulling on the door, to maneuver it past the iron bar on top, but metal isn't very flexible. He tried bending the hinges, but they were too strong. Each time he tried to lift the door it seemed to get heavier and heavier. But he kept trying, because the lives of the others depended on him.

It was right as he was about to try lifting the door once more that clay heard footsteps. He dropped his lever and tried to look natural as orange torchlight came around the corner. The torches shale had replaced the night before were slowly going out, and it was past time that they were replaced. Clay hoped he could talk shale into helping him, no matter how unlikely that was.

But the skywing that came around the corner wasn't shale. It was Corey . Corey had the bundle of unlit torches hanging over his shoulder, and was carrying a spear. Clay watched him as he came in and set the spear down and unbundled the torches. Corey didn't look very happy as he set about removing the old torches.

"Hey," said clay.

"What do you want?" growled Corey, not even looking at him, "if you start demanding choice food, i can tell you that the answer is no."

"No, it's not that." said Clay, "I just … well, normally shale replaces the torches. I was just wondering why you were here instead."

"Why?" snapped corey, still not looking at him, "you think I can't do this job right? Im not good enough at it?"

"No, nothing like that." said clay. He noticed that coreys spear was lying not all that far from the cell bars. Clay saw his opportunity. He quietly moved as close to the bars as he could. "I was just curious," he said, "about where shale is."

Corey snorted as he yanked one of the dead torches from the wall.

"My amazing big brother is with the queen and her pet scientist. They're doing who knows what to those nightwings and that sandwing."

Clay felt his heart stop. A cold wave of fear swept over him.

"What has she done to them?" he asked, aware that his voice had taken a higher pitch. Corey shrugged as he lit the next torch.

"I dont know. Don't really care either, but as long as she's dismembering them, then she's not dismembering me."

Clay took several deep breaths to try and calm himself. He had to do something, and fast. He couldn't even begin to imagine what sick things Scarlett had planned. He didn't want to imagine them either. He had to do something.

His eyes went back to the spear. It was close. It had to be an arms reach away. Corey had two more torches to replace. He would have to be quick.

"Is … are the others okay? I mean, alive at least?" he asked. He put his arm through the bars, moving carefully to avoid sound. Corey plucked a torch off the wall and lit the next.

"I don't know. They weren't moving when I looked at them, but who knows. I never took the time to check. Not like I care about them anyway."

Clay stretched his arm as far as he could. He was so close. The tips of his talons touched the wooden handle.

Corey pulled the last torch from the wall, lit the replacement and stuck it into the holder. He bent down and retied the bundle. He threw it over his shoulder, and reached for the spear. His talon closed on empty floor. Corey turned, and looked. The spear was gone. He looked up, just as clay drove the spear into his neck.

Corey staggered back, dropping the torches. The blade had gone clean through his voice box and severed his jugular. Clay still held the spear, sticking out into the tunnel between the bars. He watched in horror as corey ran into the wall and fell. He tried to cover the wound, but it was hopeless. The damage was done, and he was bleeding out. Clay had never killed anyone before, and watching Corey die made him feel weak in the knees. He had to lay down as the realization of what he had done swept over him. He felt dizzy, lightheaded, he wanted to throw up.

Corey couldn't talk anymore, but he gasped and gurgled horribly. Clay covered his ears and tried to drown the sound out.

It took a long time for Corey to finally go still. When clay looked up, the skywing was lying on his side in a slick red pool of blood. Corey's eyes were open, glassy and lifeless, and his scales were a much paler color.

Clay began to shiver violently at the sight. He hugged himself and tried to get control of himself. He needed several minutes to calm down. He took deep breaths, holding them in and letting them out slowly. When he felt less nauseous, he stood again on wobbly legs. He took the spear and reached around the outside. After some fiddling, he fit the blade into the lock on the door. He turned the spear, and a second later the door swung open.

Now clay felt excitement bubbling up, mixing with the terror. His heart pounded in his ears and he began breathing hard. Clay took one of the torches off the wall and set off down the tunnel.

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**And here. we. go. **

**I'm sorta flying by the seat of my pants here, but I'll try to make this ending work out. Next update should be Friday, unless I get kungflu or the world ends. See ya then.**


	9. Chapter9

**So I updated a little early. You can't be mad at me for that, right?**

**All week I have been busy, but I was able to write the final scene to this story.**

**The problem is, I need to tie the ending to the rest of the story.  
**

**-queenglorythefirst: here's our winner, now we don't have to call you queenglorythesecond.**

**I felt that clay was in character, given the situation. He was desperate, scared, and didn't necessarily think through what he was about to do. He just reacted. Like when anemone killed whirlpool. But I suppose that is a matter of opinion.**

**-dragon349295:better luck next time. I have been checking everyday for that au, can't wait to read it.**

**\- alpaca: shadowWalker sounds like a cool name. Please tell me if you can download fanfiction, and I can help you walk through the steps. But in the meantime, if you would like, I can help you develope shadowWalker. How old is he? What's his backstory? I'm on the same page as you with action (my favorite movie is saving private ryan), but for some reason, with just the name and species, I picture shadowWalker to be an assassin in training. He would get along well with a character in my other wof peice.**

**If you would like, I can take your description and write a small (small) peice to flesh out his character. I would do this to maybe help you get an idea of what he should look like. But that's your call.**

**Let me know when you can. Remember, when you review I am quickly notified via email, and I can write my reply in the comments.**

**Okay, enough of the chatter. I'm putting it out there though, this chapter is ... dark. Proceed with caution.**

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Starflight, fatespeaker and sunny were led to a storage room. Apparently, the room was connected to the forge which was farther in the back. The storage room was stocked with bundles of torches, raw metal ore, wood and coal. There were also several iron loops driven into the wall, like the ones in the prison cell. Scarlett had sunny and starflight chained to one side of the room, and fatespeaker to the other. After they were secured, scarlet strode over to a wooden box. She opened it and rooted around inside for a minute. She eventually withdrew a long, wickedly sharp dagger. The blade was long and narrow, and it glinted in the firelight. It was almost painful to look at. Scarlet turned back to them and held out her talons, palm up. She took the knife and placed the tip of the blade in the center of her palm. She gave it a gentle push, and a second later a bright red bead of blood appeared around the tip. Scarlet nodded in approval at the sharp blade as she wiped her palm on the stone floor.

"Fine work shale, I'm impressed." she said, "and it's not easy to impress me."

Shale nodded. He and Ciel were standing by the entrance, watching the whole cave. Scarlet walked over to sunny and starflight. "Okay then, lets begin. Nightwing, I happen to know that you are very close to that one over there." she gestured to fatespeaker, "and I know how distraught you would be if anything terrible were to happen to her."

Fatespeaker whimpered, sunny moaned.

"Please, don't hurt her," said starflight, "she hasn't done anything to you, it's me you want. She never even knew you existed, she hasn't done anything."

"Uh, wrong." said scarlet, "first of all, she's a friend of yours, and that's all I need. But second of all, she's a back-stabbing nightwing, just like you and the rest of your species. And third of all, you and her both are in possession of a large number of scrolls, which upon inspection appear to have come from my library. She has stolen my property, and I hate it when dragons steal from me."

"But …" Starflight said, then trailed off.

"Yes? What is it nightwing?" Starflight shook his head.

"Nothing, I wasn't going to say anything."

"Sure you weren't. Let's hear it, or I'll cut out her eyes. Then you'll both be blind, and wouldn't that be romantic?"

"It's … ruby gave them to us. Queen ruby said we could borrow them." He said. Scarlet smiled.

"I knew that's what you were going to say. Well, here's the problem with that. To be a Queen, the heir must outlive the queen. But as you can see, I am very much alive, and therefore, ruby is an imposter. And you stole my scrolls."

"But-"

"But you thought I was gone. Well, unfortunately for you I'm not. So then, let's begin shall we?" Scarlet turned to sunny, "I'm going to need your help for this, little sandwing. I am going to have some fun cutting that nightwing to pieces. Your job is to describe everything you see to your blind friend here. Got that?"

Sunny's eyes were wide, and she shook her head.

"No, I can't- I won't do that. Please don't do that-"

"You've got no real choice." Said scarlet, "if you stop talking, then I'll just hurt her more. Understand?"

Sunny had tears coming out of her eyes as she began to cry.

"No please, please don't. Please." She whimpered.

Scarlet rolled her eyes.

"You can stop saying please, the outcome will still be the same." She stood up straight and turned towards Fatespeaker. The young nightwing cowered in the corner of the wall, as far from scarlet as she could get. She was shaking like a leaf and her eyes were as wide as the full moons. "Ciel, you know the drill." Said scarlet, "what should I do first? I don't want to kill her, maybe not yet at least."

Ciel stepped away from shale and walked out and around scarlet to get a better view.

"I would start the same way as the others." She said, "surface injuries first, anything deeper should stay in the muscle and non-vital areas."

Scarlet nodded.

Fatespeaker pressed herself farther into the wall as scarlet advanced on her. The blade raised up high in the air, then flashed downward in a glittering ark.

Fatespeaker screamed and instinctively put a protective talon over the slash across her face. Scarlet swiped the blade back up, then across. Fatespeaker yelped and tried to pull away from the blade.

"Why can't I hear you sandwing?" Scarlet called, looking over her shoulder at sunny, "I should be hearing some tearful descriptions over there."

But sunny couldn't watch. She had her talons covering her eyes, trying to block out what was happening.

Scarlet scowled at her. She turned back to fatespeaker, slashed a few more cuts into her hide. Fatespeaker cried out at each cut.

"Please stop!" shouted starflight

"Talk to the sandwing." said scarlet, "I made it very simple, and if she doesn't start speaking up it will only get worse."

Scarlet stabbed inward and buried the blade into fatespeakers shoulder. The little nightwing tried to pull away.

Starflight was beginning to panic. He wanted to do what he could to save fatespeaker, but it would be horribly cruel to tell sunny to watch and describe it to him.

"Just… please! Tell me yourself, don't make her do it!"

Scarlet was quickly getting angry. She was mad that her little game wasn't working out like she wanted. She glared at sunny, but the little sandwing was still curled up and covering her face. Scarlet snarled and whirled on fatespeaker.

Fatespeaker screamed as scarlet began to stab her shoulders, aiming for non- vital areas.

"Your highness, be careful!" called ciel, "don't puncture the artery!"

Scarlet took a few more stabs, then whirled and stormed across the cave. Fatespeaker collapsed. She was breathing hard, and crying, and bleeding profusely. Her forearms and shoulders were filled with deep, precise gashes, and she could barely move her talons. Scarlet came over to tower above sunny and starflight.

"What's the matter little sandwing? Don't you want your friend to suffer as little as possible?"

Sunny was unresponsive to her. She was curled into a ball of golden scales, shaking uncontrollably. "If you would have just done like I said, then your friend wouldn't be filled with puncture wounds. I would have limited it to surface injuries."

"Please don't do this," said starflight, "please-"

"Was I talking to you?" snapped scarlet, "and stop it with all the 'please please' business, it irritates me."

"But-"

"Be quiet." Scarlet turned back to sunny. "Well sandwing, here's how it is. Either you sit up and start describing what you see, or things will get ugly. Understand? Now, what will it be?"

Sunny didn't respond. She was shivering, and trying to block out the sounds of fatespeaker crying.

Scarlet watched her, waiting for a response. After a minute, she saw she wasn't going to get one.

"Fine then, it's her funeral." she said. She turned and stomped her way back over to fatespeaker.

Fatespeaker tried to move away as she approached. But there was nowhere to go. Scarlet held the knife at shoulder height, taking a second to ponder where she would hit her first.then, with an angry roar she lunged and buried the knife just under fatespeakers collarbone.

"Your highness, you're going to kill her!" said ciel. But it was too late, Scarlet didn't hear her. Like a shark in a feeding frenzy, scarlet set upon fatespeaker with a wild energy. She cut, stabbed, slashed and tore at the young nightwings helpless form. Fatespeaker screamed, and tried to get away, but there was nowhere to go. Scarlet shredded her wings with the dagger, rendering them to a useless mass of ripped tissue. Sunny couldn't watch, she was curled in a tight little ball, trying to drown out the screams. Starflight couldn't see what was happening, but he knew. He pulled against the chains in a helpless attempt to save her, to do anything but stand by.

Fatespeaker squirmed away from scarlet, gaining a moment's reprieve. Then scarlet tackled here, bowling her over in a mess of chains and blood. Fatespeaker was trapped, lying face up as scarlet pinned her. Scarlet held her there a second, savoring the absolute fear in her young little eyes.

Then she drove the dagger into fatespeakers abdomen. Fatespeaker coughed and screeched, scarlet withdrew the dagger and stabbed again, and again, putting all her strength into each blow. By the tenth swing, the dagger and her fist disappeared inside the torn belly muscle, and a harsh crack sounded as the blade struck the rock beneath fatespeaker. But she still didn't stop. Scarlet kept stabbing until she was standing in a pool of gore.

When she finally stopped, fatespeakers abdomen was torn apart, entrails and muscle tissue were no longer distinguishable in the mass of red pulp.

Fatespeaker was still alive, but just barely. She wasn't screaming anymore. She was in shock, and the life was quickly draining from her eyes. Her talons were shaking, and she was struggling to breath. She gasped like a fish out of water, and blood slowly trickled from her nose and mouth. Her diaphragm was torn to ribbons, leaving her to fight for a breath of air that would never come.

Scarlet watched her spasms for a moment, then turned to inspect her dagger. She held it up to the torchlight, making her whole forearm glisten in the firelight. Blood dripped off the point of the knife, which was now broken off into a jagged end from repeatedly striking rock. After a moments silence, she brought the blade down and rested the jagged point on fatespeakers chest. Fatespeakers eyes never left scarlets face as the skywing put two talons on the blade and drove it slowly into her heart. Fatespeaker spasmed, and a squeak came from her throat as whatever air left in her lungs was pushed out. Then a terrible cracking as scarlet turned the blade. Fatespeaker spasmed, one last weak flail of panic, then she went still. Her body went limp, and her eyes glassed over. She was dead.

The cave was very quiet for several minutes. Sunny sobbed inaudibly, starflight had covered his face with his wings and cried softly. It was as if the brutality had frightened them into mourning quietly, like disciplined children afraid of further arousing their guardians anger.

When scarlet finally stood, she looked at the grisly scene and nodded to herself. She flexed her talons, turning them over in the torchlight, studying the blood covering her scales. She nodded again, appearing satisfied. She reached down and yanked the broken knife from fatespeakers body. She wordlessly crossed the cave and stood in front of starflight. He sensed her presence, and shrank in on himself. Scarlet hesitated a second, then was on him like lightning. She stabbed straight down, sinking the broken blade into his back, below the shoulder blade. Starflight instinctively leapt to his feet, trying to get away. Scarlet stabbed again, putting the knife into his side, then again in his shoulder. Starflight screamed in pain and fear of his unseen attacker. But scarlet cut him off with a massive blow to the head from the butt of the knife. Starflight was unconscious before he hit the floor.

Scarlet threw aside the knife and strode off in the direction of the forge.

"Ciel, bring the sandwing. Shale, clean up this mess. I'm not finished yet."

* * *

Clay followed the tunnel, moving carefully and quietly. His heart thundered in his ears, and he nervously scanned the tunnel around him. He was afraid that he would run into a skywing at any second, and he gripped the spear in a death hold.

Clay had worried that he would get lost in the tunnels. He had pictured a maze under the mountains, and was afraid he would make a wrong turn somewhere. But as he walked the tunnel and began to make a map in his head, he found that there wasn't any maze or confusing entrances. It was just one long tunnel that occasionally took a slight turn. As he continued walking, clay slowly grew more confident, and picked up the pace. He was running the possible scenarios of what he would do when he found the others. Corey had said that scarlet was tormenting straflight, fatespeaker and sunny, but they hadn't been led past clays cell. Clay feared this meant that she had decided to carry out her twisted plans in their cell, wherever that was. If the tunnel didn't split anywhere along the way, he should find them easily enough, but what would he do when he got there? Surely he would be outnumbered, and he wasn't very good at fighting. But he had no choice. He would have to try as hard as he could.

After another few minutes of walking, clay came on a corner with a slight incline. He stayed by the wall, trying to avoid profiling himself as he rounded the corner.

The tunnel opened into a small cave. It continued through and disappeared on the opposite side.

Clay stopped and looked around. To his left were several torch holders mounted on the wall. To his right, he saw cell bars.

Clay approached the cell, the torch held high. Inside, he saw two still forms.

"Glory! Tsunami!" he cried, "are - is that you?"

It was them. Tsunami groaned and tried to look at him. She was an awful, bloody mess.

"Clay?" she murmured.

Clay set the torch in a holder and put the spear in the door. He unlocked it and hurried inside. Glory was closest to the door, lying in a heap. She didn't move at all, no signs of consciousness. Clay stopped to check her vitals. He felt her neck and wrist. "Is … is she…?"

"Shes alive," said clay, "it's faint, but i feel a pulse."

Tsunami sighed in relief and slumped. She never moved from her spot.

"What happened to her?" she mumbled.

Clay peered closely at glorys face. There was a huge welt on her head, and she had bled out of her left ear. A sign of a broken skull.

"Scarlet … hit her with a rock." he said. He gently moved glorys head to a more comfortable position. Then he moved to tsunami. "What about you? And where are the others?" he looked down at her, "wait, what? Where are your glowy scales?"

"Gone." she mumbled. Clay shuddered violently.

"I'm so sorry," he said.

Tsunami didn't say anything. After a second of staring clay shook his head. He grabbed the spear and began to unlock tsunami. "Where are the others?" he asked.

"Gone." tsunami said. She suddenly gasped as he unlocked her right arm.

"What's wrong?" asked clay.

"My shoulder … I think it's dislocated." she gasped. Clay set aside the spear, trying to get a better look at her.

"Here, let me help," he said, pulling her talon away from the injured joint, "how long has it been like this? since they pulled you past my cell?"

"No," she grunted, "ciel reset it before scarlet beat me up. It went out again last night, when they took my other scales."

Clay gently touched her shoulder, noting how she flinched. The limb was swollen and discolored from a reduction in blood flow.

"I'm going to reset it." he said. She nodded, and tried to relax her muscles. Clay waited a few seconds, until he felt her shoulder soften up a bit. With a quick, sharp motion he reset the shoulder. Tsunami lurched and roared as he stepped back. She went quiet, and laid still. "Better?" asked clay.

"Better." she said. She took a big breath and massaged the sore joint, flexing her talons experimentally. "Just like last time, when we left the cave. Remember?"

Clay nodded. He picked up the spear.

"I remember." he said. He went back to glory, unlocked her and pulled off the muzzle. "I'm going to get the others." he said.

"So am I." said tsunami. She tried to stand up, but only made it to a sitting position.

"Maybe you should stay here," said Clay, "and help glory."

Tsunami shook her head.

"No, I'm coming with you. I feel really bad about letting scarlet walk away with the others."

"There was nothing you could do," said clay.

Tsunami sighed.

"I know. And it hurts to know that. But now that you're here, maybe I won't be so helpless."

"But tsunami, you can't even stand up."

"I can too. I just need help getting up. Once I'm on my feet I'll be alright."

"But what about glory?"

Tsunami grimaced.

"I can't help her. But I can help you. Four against one, you need all the help you can get."

Clay flinched.

"Actually, it's three against one. I killed one of them."

Tsunami nodded.

"I was wondering how you got the spear." she said, "so now it's three against two."

"But tsunami-"

"No buts clay, I'm coming with you. I have been completely worthless to you all, and now's my chance to actually help. Now get over here and help me up."

Clay sighed. He went to her, let her lean on him, and helped her to her feet. Tsunami was unsteady, and looked ready to fall over.

"Here, just lean on me," he said. They walked out of the cell. "Don't worry glory." he said as they passed her, "we'll be back."

**——————————————————————————**

**I'm sorry you guys. I really am. I hated writing this chapter, I actually felt terrible. I enjoy writing action scenes, and when a character is injured in a fight, that's okay, because they were in combat, they had a chance to hit back.**

**But this ... torture. This is a whole different thing, to write of somebody being so helpless, at the mercy of a sick individual, it disturbs me. It really worries me actually, that I thought this up. **

**Anyway, please review. As usual, if you liked it, say so. If you hated it, which I did, then say so. I'll see you later.**


	10. Chapter10

**I'm back. I always say that I will update on Friday, but then I get impatient. Most of the time when I update, it tends to be later at night. I then stay up way too late playing world of tanks while waiting for any early reviews.**

**-oragon king: I'm sorry, but there is no way to fix it. Fatespeaker is dead. **

**-dragon349295: I assume you mean in your au. I still can't wait to read it.**

**-queenglorythefirst: thanks for noticing Fatespeakers development. I was afraid that I wasn't giving her enough before her time ran out. Thanks for reviewing on my other story. Agular is a word I made up. Out of curiosity, I googled it, and it turns out that it was also a Spanish family name, which was derived from an ancient Arabic word meaning a nest or living area of Eagles. Who knew?  
**

**-dragonauthor: thanks for stopping by. In your search for the perfect assassin, don't overlook agular the sandwing. He is very flexible with pay.**

**-skydrake0203: I love seeing new faces. Yes, this is a dark peice, but I hope you continue to read the rest of the story.**

**-cricketsundew: hello! It's good to see you stopping by to read what I have. I'm sorry about the grammar, but I'm going to let you in on a secret of mine. I have no understanding of grammar. I have been in many English classes, and for some reason I still don't understand it.**

**-finally, alpaca: I'm sorry we had a rough time with communicating. I was trying to talk and do landscape work at the same time. Apparently I can't post an email address in fanfiction. But here's the thing, I said I would do it, and I did. I wrote a short peice with shadowWalker. I portrayed him to be in my other story, agulars arms and antiques. He will be in chapter two, but I will not post that until I have your permission. So if you would like to see what I have done with him, head over there and leave me a go ahead review.**

**Alright, I'm sorry about the huge pile of responses. Here's chapter 10.**

* * *

Sunny had been drug across the stone floor, down a little tunnel at the back of the storage room. It was a dark tunnel, with several turns, but at the last bend there was a warm orange glow that lit the way. The tunnel opened into a large room. There was a large central furnace that heated the space to an uncomfortable temperature and drove the dampness from the air. There were anvils and tool benches, a coal bunk, and a weapons rack. There was also a trough by the wall that was half full of water, and several buckets beside it.

There were no iron loops in the wall to chain sunny to, so Ciel drug her to an anvil and locked the chain around it's base.

Sunny was still in tears after witnessing the death of fatespeaker. She layed where she was and cried while the two skywings went about their business.

Ciel stood by the entrance, leaning on the wall with her back to the tunnel. Scarlet went to the water trough and began to wash the blood off of her arms. It took her several minutes, and when she was finished the water had turned a cloudy red.

Scarlet then went over to one of the tool benches, which appeared to be stacked full of scrap. She rooted around, pulling out long, thin bands of steel and copper, and several strips of brass. After she had a little pile of these long pieces, she went to the furnace and dropped them into the coals. She watched them heat, using a long pair of tongs to poke them around the hot coals.

"What are you going to do?" asked ciel. Her voice was genuinely curious.

"Something thrilling." said scarlet. She never looked away from the coals. The orange glow of the furnace highlighted her, making the ex-queens disfigured face take on a demonic glow.

"Should I stand in on this one?" asked ciel, "or do you not really care if she lives?"

Scarlet shrugged.

"I don't care. They are all going to die here eventually, it's not like I can just let them run around and tell everyone where we are."

"What about the other kingdoms? Won't they come looking for us?"

"They already are." said scarlet. Her voice was unusually low, and quiet. She wasn't trying to assert authority over anyone at the moment, she was already in complete control. "The whole world is looking for us. Everyone wants to know what terrible things have befallen the wonderful 'dragonets of destiny'. And I don't intend on letting them find out."

"Won't they know it was you?" asked ciel. Scarlet shrugged.

"They suspect me for everything. Unfortunately for them, there is a lot of world out there, a lot of land to cover. And I have a lot of secret caves, tunnels and bunkers to live in. They will never find me."

There was silence for several minutes. Sunny quietly cried, holding her head in her talons. Ciel looked from her, then back to Scarlet.

"How long do you think we will be here?" Asked Ciel, "this isn't the most remote location after all, eventually someone will find us."

"We'll be long gone when they find this cave." Said scarlet. She stirred the coals and watched the disturbed sparks drift upward.

"What about the others? Corey and shale? I don't think that they will be very eager about following us."

"Yes, you have a point. Their loyalty to me is waning, and I can't have them running off. We may have to kill them, along with these brats. Corey is only here because he's following his brother, and shale is here because he wants me to bring him back to his daughter."

"Will you? That sounds like a lot of hassle." said Ciel, "it would be better to just ditch him."

Scarlet shook her head.

"Shales daughter is dead. She's been dead for over a year, but he dosen't need to know that. That's the only reason he is following me." Scarlet turned the metal pieces over, then looked at ciel. "What about you?" she asked, "why are you following me? As far as I know, I don't have anything of yours."

Ciel shrugged.

"After you disappeared, the kingdom was in panic. I had no idea what to do. Then ruby seized the throne, and all who supported you were imprisoned. I escaped, but they killed my husband. I have nothing left. But I can't just go live somewhere, because as your head scientist, I hold a high profile. You are the only one who wouldn't turn me in, and like you said,-" she gestured to the cave around her, "you have secret bunkers to hide in. it's safer to follow you than to live outside."

Scarlet nodded.

"Good. It sounds like you have enough reasons to stay. But shale and corey have to go."

"When? How should i do it?"

Scarlet rubbed her chin.

"Tomorrow." she said, "I'll finish with the prisoners. Maybe we could drop their bodies around their respective kingdoms. That would be fun, imagine the stories that would fly around then."

"But the other two?"

"Whatever's easiest." said Scarlet.

Ciel nodded.

"Alright. I'll slip some poison into their dinners tonight. They'll never know what hit them."

* * *

Clay and tsunami tread cautiously down the tunnel. Clay held the spear, and tsunami held the torch. It was rough going. The stone floor was uneven and tsunami had to stop frequently to catch her breath. She was unsteady, and was breathing hard, sending great puffs of steam into the air. The farther they went, the more she needed to lean on clay for support. He began to wonder if he should have made her stay behind.

After a while they rounded a bend in the tunnel. Up ahead was an opening in the wall, and orange light poured from it.

"Stop," gasped tsunami, "douse the torch."

Clay took the torch from her and smothered the flame. It crackled and hissed, and the coal burned at his palm. But his fire resistant scales held back the heat, and in moments they were standing in darkness.

Tsunami leaned against him and panted. They stood by the wall, watching the opening. Nobody came out.

"What do you think?" whispered clay.

Tsunami cleared her throat, and swallowed.

"Let's stand here a minute, and listen." she said.

They listened. Clay couldn't hear much, aside from tsunamis heavy breathing. He strained to hear anything that sounded like his friends, or scarlet, or both. They stood there for a long while, long enough that clay felt a chill creeping into his bones. It was very cold when he wasn't moving, and he had to suppress the urge to shiver. Tsunamis breathing had slowed down, and unlike clay, she had started to shiver. Although the walk had been much more exerting for her, she was less resistant to the cold in her weakened state.

After standing for a while, clay whispered,

"So, what now?"

"Can you hear anything?" tsunami asked. He shook his head. "Neither can I. We need to move closer." Clay stayed by the wall as they approached the opening. Tsunami leaned heavily on his shoulder as they approached.

"Not too close." he whispered, and she nodded. They stopped a tailslength from the light spilling across the floor. Once again, they stood and listened. At first, clay heard nothing. But after a few seconds, he heard footsteps and clinking chains. He looked at tsunami, who met his eyes.

"What do we do?" he whispered.

Tsunami shrugged.

"I don't know. But I think there's only one of them."

"Who?" asked clay.

Tsunami shook her head.

"I don't know. But they're not talking to anyone."

"What about the chains? Maybe it's sunny, or starflight. Maybe they're chained down in there."

Tsunami stepped on his foot as he was about to move into the light.

"We don't know who it is. We need to be careful."

From inside the cave they heard a loud splash. Then the sound of a bucket being set down, followed by a second splash.

"Is somebody … cleaning?" asked clay.

"I don't see why they would be." said tsunami, "maybe they're refreshing the water?"

"For what?"  
"I dunno. The forge? They said something about a forge, right?"

Clay shrugged, almost making her fall. She steadied herself.

"Maybe you should stand against the wall," said clay, "it's steadier."

Tsunami nodded. She pushed away from him and stepped back. She put her wing out to brace against the wall, but before she got there her feet went out from under her. In the dark, she had stepped on a rock that rolled under her foot, throwing her off balance. Clay automatically went to catch her, and in the process lost hold of the spear. The rock and spear made a clattering sound as they bounced across the stone. Tsunami and clay looked at each other in sudden panic. From inside the cave, they heard a deep voice call out,

"Corey? Is that you? I need a hand here."

Clay quickly helped tsunami back to her feet, then grabbed the spear. He pressed himself against the wall, holding the weapon in both talons. His heart began to race, and he felt adrenaline begin to tingle through his body.

Inside the cave, a shadow was cast across the entrance. The light shifted, and footsteps came towards them. Clay gripped the spear hard enough to leave talon prints in the handle. The footsteps drew closer, and then torchlight spilled out into the tunnel. Shale came out of the cave, holding a torch at head height.

"Corey?" he called. Then his eyes landed on clay. Time froze for a moment. Shale's eyes widened as he realized what he was seeing. His mouth parted, about to say something.

Then clay lunged. He put all of his strength into the spear, driving it into the shale's chest, just behind the shoulder.

The spear went deep, and clays momentum sent shale staggering. The big skywing dropped the torch with a cry of shock. He fell, hard, taking the spear with him.

Clay stepped back, also in shock. It had happened so fast, he hadn't even thought of attacking shale, he had just panicked and done it.

Shale was gasping and spasming. He coughed, and blood came out his mouth. The spear had punctured both lungs and his heart. Shale had only moments to live.

The big skywing stared in disbelief at his fatal injury. Then he slowly looked at clay.

" you … you know …. Mudwing," he gasped, "I … I was …. just … about … … … about to take … you up … on … your offer."

He coughed again, and blood spurted from the entrance wound. More came out his mouth. He groaned, and laid his head on the floor. He started to shake, and spasm. Hot, candy red crimson poured from the wound, pooling on the floor beneath him. He began to cough as his lungs rapidly filled with blood. Each cough and spasm sent another spurt from the entrance wound. His destroyed heart beat rapidly, shunting blood to his vital organs and causing massive internal bleeding.

It took several minutes before he went still. Shale died with a grimace on his face, glassy eyes staring at the ceiling. Steam rose from the injury and dissipated in the cold cave air.

Clay shuddered and looked away. It was as if he had killed Corey all over again, the same dizziness swept over him, and he had to lean against the wall for support. He felt sick again. He knew that no matter what happened, or who his target was, clay would never get used to killing.

"Are you alright?" whispered tsunami. Clay shook his head.

"No … no I'm not. I think I'm going to puke."

"You did the right thing," said tsunami, "that was a brave move, and it was the right move."

"But … he said he was going to help me," said clay, "he was going to take my offer."

Tsunami looked confused.

"What do you mean? What offer?"

Clay pressed his forehead into the wall.

"He … shale doesn't like scarlet. Didn't. He said she had something of his. I said I would help him find it if he helped us."

Tsunami looked from clay to the dead skywing. She didn't show any pity. He was, after all, the one who had pinned her down so ciel could cut out her scales.

Leaning on the wall, she stepped towards clay. She laid her wing on his shoulder, bringing his eyes up to her.

"Come on," she said, "we need to keep moving."

* * *

Clay didn't want to touch the spear. But tsunami was too unsteady to pull it from Shale's body herself, so he had to. After he had retrieved the weapon, they slowly made their way into the cave.

After several steps in, clay wrinkled his nose.

"Oh snakes, … what … is that smell?"

Tsunami gagged.

"I dont know. I've never smelled anything like it, but it can't be good."

The entrance tunnel had a slight incline, and the smell got worse with each step. They hugged the left wall, and when they reached the top the whole right hand side of the cave came into view. Clay and tsunami gasped as they saw the still form of starflight lying chained to the wall.

"Starflight?" said clay, calling out to him quietly, "starflight are you okay?"

Clay left tsunami inside the entrance and rushed over to the unconscious nightwing. He felt starflights neck and found a pulse. "Oh no, starflight, what did she do to you?" he said.

Starflight had several deep wounds, one in his back, his side and his shoulder. There was a large bruise on his head, about a claws length back from his right eye. He was breathing shallowly, and his mouth hung ajar.

Clay tried to think of what to do. He took the spear and began to unlock the clamps around his legs and muzzles.

"Oh no," said tsunami, "Clay, look … look what she … did …"

Tsunami trailed off.

Clay turned and saw her, still leaning against the wall. But she was looking across the cave, to the other side. Clay looked too, and his heart stopped. Fatespeakers mutilated body lay on its side, facing them. Her torn belly gaped open, and the shredded entrails splayed out across the rock. Her chains and muzzle had been removed, and were lying in a heap beside her, along with a pile of bloodstained rags. The awful smell in the air suddenly made sense. It was the smell of spilled blood, gall, and intestinal fluids.

Now clay really was sick. He turned away, and heaved. But after several days without eating, his stomach was empty. He retched and dry-heaved until the painful stomach contractions subsided. Then he put a talon against the wall to steady himself. The room was spinning, and he had to close his eyes. He took big breaths, trying to block out the smell.

He felt something touch his shoulder, and then tsunami was there, leaning on him. She had tears in her eyes.

"Why would she do that?" moaned clay, "why would they kill her? She was… fatespeaker didn't do anything. Why would she-"

"She's a monster." said tsunami, "an absolute monster. She would do anything."

Clay felt tears stinging the corners of his eyes. He didn't try to hold them back.

"Poor, poor fatespeaker." he whispered, "why did this have to happen to her?"

"Why has any of this happened to us?" said tsunami.

She looked around, avoiding seeing fatespeakers corpse. She left clay, using the wall as a brace and walked towards the back of the cave, looking behind the boxes of materials.

"What are you doing?" asked clay.

"Where's sunny?" asked tsunami.

Clay felt his heart skip a beat. A sudden mental image of sunny, torn apart on the stone floor, sent a shockwave of panic through his system. He pulled away from the wall and rushed after tsunami. They looked through the cave together, but there was no sign of the little sandwing. But they did find a second spear, and an exit in the back.

"She's not here." said clay.

Tsunami was using one of the spears to hold herself up. She looked at the tunnel. They both shivered.

"First it was fatespeaker," said tsunami, "now sunny."

"No." siad Clay, "not sunny. Please, don't let her be next."

They set off down the tunnel.

* * *

**As usual, please review. I'll be playing world of tanks, waiting to hear what you have to say.**


	11. Chapter11

**UPDATE! My phone hasn't been putting up full chapters, I'm trying to fix it now, sorry for the screw ups**

**-dragon349295: that was fast. This story has a tiny bit more to go, but we are indeed in the home stretch.**

**-cricketsundew: I'm glad the emotions are standing out. That was the whole point of writing this after all, to practice showing emotion.**

**-queenglorythefirst: while you may not be the first to review, you are still queenglorythefirstplace. You were the first to review to this story, and my other story, and you are the reason this story made it past chapter three. I would have taken it down if you hadn't showed up.**

**-oragonking: I'm sorry that you are unhappy with the outcome, but Fatespeaker is gone. Remember, even in the books it said that animus magic can't bring them back.**

**-donhp: *screaming* YES! YES! YES! Thank you! I was getting a little worried about how you all would take it, and how I would break the news, but there will be no animus magic in this story. I'm sorry, but here is my reasons.**

**I don't like magic, because it's cheap. I actively avoid books with magic, (nothing against y'all who enjoy it) because it is too easy to use it as a fix all. How is the bad guy so powerful? Magic. How did the good guy beat him? Magic. How is that guy not dead? Magic. See what I'm saying?**

**I have read all the wof books, and when I say I'm a fan, I pretty muchly mean the first five, because there is way too much magic in all the others. That being said, for some reason, I did enjoy darkstalker.**

** I am avoiding magic because it is too easy of a way to solve the dragonets problems. I want them to face their problems in a more realistic way, (as realistic as talking dragons can be, at least) because if, in the end, everyone is magically healed, then there was no point in worrying about the characters in the first place.**

**-blueberry avarr: jeez-o-pizza's, you don't mess around when it comes to reviewing, do ya? Thank you for all of your feedback. My phone alerted me to your reviews at four in the morning. I'm a light sleeper, so that scared me for a second. I can't reply to all of your points here, this response area is already way too long, but I can say that no, there is not a happy ending planned, and I really hope I'm not going overboard, although I said I probably would in the intro. This story was originally meant to be way beyond my normal tone, and I hadn't intended to let anyone read it. Also, I would trade world of tanks for war thunder in a heartbeat. The problem is, I don't have a pc at my disposal. I'm stuck with a phone, which is great for writing stories(NOT!). I appreciate realistic gameplay, and being a ww2 history nut, the kv2 is one of my favorite geek out subjects. It was originally built to counter Finnish bunkers, so it makes sense that it would suddenly make ****armored vehicals cease to exist.**

**Innocent cinnamon: welcome! I like the name, although I don't like cinnamon. I really tried to keep everyone in character, although it can be difficult.**

**Nonya: I'm sorry, but it is way too late to add your character. Also, as I said before, this story is prewritten, so I can't just go back and change the whole thing. **

**Okay, I'm sorry for the huge response section. **

* * *

**Forewarning, this chapter is a little dark.  
**

* * *

Scarlet picked one of the brass pieces out of the furnace and laid it on an anvil. The little piece of golden metal was glowing with heat. Sunny was standing, at the end of her chain, as far from scarlet as she could get. Scarlet used the tongs to begin bending the piece into a small hoop.

"I've never made anything out of metal before," she said, briefly glancing at sunny, "but today, I decided to give it a try. Do you know what I'm making, sandwing?"

Sunny slowly shook her head. Scarlet grinned.

"I'm making a gift for you."

Sunny blinked, confused. She said nothing, but scarlet saw it on her face "what do I mean by that?" said scarlet, "well, I had been thinking. You are a princess, correct? Daughter of queen thorn. But you look very ordinary, aside from your little defects. As a daughter of royalty, you should have some form of … adornment." she held up the little band of brass, now formed into a little hoop. The metal had cooled enough to no longer be glowing, but it was still very hot. Scarlet set down one of the tongs and advanced on sunny.

Sunny began to panic, frantically looking around, but there was no escape. She pulled on the chain but the anvil was much too heavy. Scarlet strode over to her, and with one talon she pinned sunny to the floor. Sunny thrashed uselessly as scarlet shifted her hold so she could grab sunny's ear. She threaded the ear through the open end of the hoop and clamped the ring shut. Sunny squealed as the hot metal burned through the cartilage. Scarlet kept the pressure on until the ring had fully burned through, then let sunny up.

Sunny scrambled to her feet, and fell over again. She was panicking, she was in extreme pain as the hot metal continued to burn her. She instinctively tried to hold her ear, but the metal burned her talons. She thrashed and howled, tangling herself in her chains.

Scarlet stood back and watched for a moment. She knew what sunny was feeling. It had to be almost the same as when she had been burned by the rainwings acid. She wished that she had thought of this torment before knocking the rainwing unconscious. It would have been almost perfect to see the rainwing writhing like this. It would have been thrilling.

Sunny began to calm down as she lost feeling in her ear. It still hurt very much, but the nerve endings were being damaged by the heat, and the scales around the ring began to turn black.

Sunny was hyperventilating, and gagging as the pain filled her with nausea.

Scarlet went back to the furnace. She sifted around inside with the tongs and pulled out a strip of steel. She set it on the anvil and began to bend it into a loop.

"Ear rings are painful, I know. But such is the cost of beauty. Don't worry, bracelets are completely harmless. Would you like this on your right or left arm?"

Sunny didn't respond. She was breathing hard, moaning with pain. Her little chest rose and fell rapidly with fast shallow breaths.

"Give her a minute to calm down." said ciel, "she's hyperventilating, and might pass out."

"Oh, she better not." snarled scarlet, "or she'll never wake up." she viscously bent the steel into a crooked loop, then grabbed hold of it's outside edges with the tongs. Once again, the medal was not glowing, but it was still burning hot. The steel had taken on a blackened color and radiated heat that could be felt from an arms length away.

Scarlet trapped sunny and grabbed her right arm. In one fast motion she bent the hot metal into a closed loop around sunny's forearm. Sunny screamed, and thrashed, trying to shake the bracelet off. But the metal band was held back by the chains around her wrist. The bracelet was just loose enough to move up and down her forearm, burning whatever it touched. Sunny cried and screamed as the smell of burning flesh filled the air.

Scarlet breathed in deeply and closed her eyes, taking it all in. She felt a giddy pleasure at the little sandwings pain, it filled her with a sort of excitement. It was like when she had killed the nightwing, except this time it wasnt frustration fueling her actions, it was the feeling of absolute power over her victim. She felt the same urge as before, to go into a wild and violent frenzy, but she suppressed it. She wanted to enjoy this, to make it last. This was a beautiful moment of revenge, and she wanted to savour it.

* * *

Clay and tsunami were hustling down the dark tunnel when they first heard the screams. Clay had been keeping pace with tsunami, but when he heard the cries he began to run.

"Wait, clay! Wait for me!" called tsunami. He stopped a second, letting her catch up. She staggered past him and he followed. She was breathing hard, and limping. Blood ran like sweat from her reopened injuries, and she stumbled around the corners.

"We need a plan," she gasped, " we need to be fast and use surprise."

"How?" asked clay. The tunnel took another turn.

"Let me go in first," she said, "I … I'm in worse shape. Let me … if we surprise them, I can do some good. But after they know what's going on … I wont be able to stand up … in a fight."

They rounded another bend, and saw light up ahead. They heard sunny scream again, loud and painful. It tore at Clay's heart to hear such an awful sound.

They approached the opening where the light flowed through. Tsunami held out her wing, motioning him to stop. Clay didn't want to stop. He wanted to rush right into the cave and save sunny. But tsunami appeared to know what she was doing. It was best to listen to her.

Tsunami took a second to breath, then she edged up to the opening. Clay stayed back as she peeked around the corner. Sunny wailed again, and he heard crashing chains. He ground his teeth together, wishing he could stop her pain. 'Hold on sunny,' he thought, 'we're here, we'll save you'.

Tsunami ducked back from the entrance.

"Ciel is right in front of us, with her back to the door. Scarlet is farther in, by the furnace. Her back is to us too. I'll take ciel, you get scarlet."

Clay nodded. Tsunami hefted her spear and took a second to steady herself. "Ready?" she asked. He nodded. Tsunami turned to the entrance. She held up her talons. One, two, three!

Tsunami charged into the cave. Clay followed right after. He rounded the corner just in time to see tsunami run her spear into Ciels abdomen. She had been aiming for the chest, but Ciel had heard her coming and had turned slightly, throwing of tsunamis aim.

As soon as the spear buried itself in her side, Ciel screeched and leapt away, taking the spear with her. Tsunami couldn't stop in time, and ended up running into her at full speed, bowling the skywing over. There was a snap as the spear broke against the wall, leaving half of it embedded in Ciel's body.

Ciel screeched as she tumbled to the floor, clutching at the broken piece of wood protruding from her stomach.

Clay saw all of this as he ran past. He pulled his eyes away and focused them on scarlet.

Scarlet heard the noise, and had turned to see what the commotion was about. She saw clay, and the spear tip that was aimed right at her heart.

Scarlet reacted. She swung a pair of iron tongs in her talons, deflecting the spears point away from her. The sudden redirection of the spear yanked clay off balance, and he crashed to the ground. His momentum carried him onward, and he came to a stop just a few feet from scarlet.

Scarlet snarled and grabbed hold of the spear. She tried to wrench it out of his talons, but clay had a strong hold, and now it was scarlet thrown off balanced. She stumbled, still holding the spear. She dropped the tongs so as to free up her other talon, and grabbed hold of the spear with both. She pulled, but clay held on. He was drug to his feet, and together they started a wild dance, each trying to wrestle the weapon from the other.

Scarlet and clay circled around the furnace, each trying to gain control of the spear. On the second lap around, clay stepped on the tongs and stumbled. Scarlet used the opportunity to push him over backwards, then twisted the spear to pin him. Clay struggled, he bucked and squirmed. It was then that scarlet realized that while clay was smaller than her, he was just as strong as she was, maybe even stronger. She barely managed to hold the pin by pushing down on the shaft with all of her body weight.

Clay was trying desperately to remember everything he had been taught about fighting. But in the terrifying excitement, he couldn't remember a thing.

Then he realized that scarlet was really close to him, in striking distance. He let go of the spear, and swung an open talon at the queen's disfigured face. His claws caught hold in the melted scales, and he slashed her from temple to jawbone.

Scarlet roared, and made the hissing noise that kestrel had always made when she was about to breath fire. Clay closed his eyes just in time as a jet of flame engulfed his face.

Clays scales were fire resistant, but his face was still very sensitive, especially his nose and the gash he had received from the door. In a second, Clay's face felt like it was burning. He roared through gritted teeth, and blindly reached out with both talons. He grabbed Scarlet's jaw, and lurched forward in a colosole headbutt.

Instantly the flames ceased. Clay felt scarlet's nose give way, breaking as he smashed it with his forehead.

Scarlet roared in pain, and let go of the spear. She backed away from him, temporarily shocked from the blow. Clay rolled onto his feet, put his head down and charged.

He came up under her chin with a second headbutt, this time jumping off the floor to put all his strength into the blow.

There was a crack and a screech as scarlet staggered backwards, running into the wall. She was dazed, her jaw was broken, and blood ran profusely from her nose.

Clay felt a little tipsy himself after those two hits, and he was seeing stars. But he shook his head, and grabbed the spear. He swung it around and aimed the blade at scarlet.

The ex-skywing queen saw what was going to happen, and bolted away from him. Clay followed her.

Scarlet ran to a tool bench and grabbed a long knife. She turned and swung it at the spear, once again deflecting it.

Instead of letting himself be thrown off balance again, clay let go of the spear, and grabbed a hold of the knife in scarlets talon. The two of them struggled with the blade, each trying to stay upright and gain control of the weapon at the same time.

Then scarlet braced against the tool bench and pushed clay over on his back. Now she was on top of him, with the knife pointing at his throat. She put both talons on the blade and leaned on it with all her weight.

Clay pushed back, but the blade krept slowly closer. In seconds it would sink into his throat, and scarlet would win. He had both talons straining to hold back the knife, but scarlet had body weight and gravity on her side. Clay felt panic sweep over him as he realized that he was about to die.

Scarlet knew this too, and she was grinning crookedly through her broken jaw. Her eyes were filled with wild energy as she said,

"Sorry mudwing, you loose."

Clay felt the blade prick his throat. Then he felt it begin to slowly sink into his scales. He tried to summon some last reserve of strength, but nothing came. He was finished, and they both knew it.

Suddenly there was a roar, a howl of anger. Scarlet screeched and jerked away from clay. He caught a glimpse of a spear handle being driven into her neck, right where the jawbone ended and the trachea began.

Then tsunami was there, shoving scarlet away, freeing him of the weight.

Clay gasped and put a talon on his throat, and felt a cut where the knife had been. He swallowed, and took a big gasp of air.

The blade hadn't gone far enough to kill him. The injury was beginning to bleed, but not like when he had stabbed corey.

"Are you alright?" gasped tsunami. He nodded.

"Yeah, I - I think so." tsunami sighed in relief and collapsed. She was breathing hard and bleeding profusely. Clay looked over at scarlet.

The ex-queen of the skywings was dead. Tsunami had driven the broken spear handle through the bottom of her jaw and right into her brain. She was lying in a heap, still holding the knife, her eyes were wide open, staring sightlessly at the floor. Clay continued to look at her for a moment, then turned to tsunami.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She nodded.

"Im fine." she gasped, "go help sunny. I'll be there in a minute."

Clay had to look around for a second before he found her. Sunny was lying by an anvil, tangled in her chains. She was holding her forearm and shaking uncontrollably.

"Sunny,'' Clay called, "it's okay sunny, we're here. What's wrong, what did she do to you?"

Sunny looked at him, and held up her arm. It was severely burned, a band of metal and fused itself into her scales, the skin around it had bubbled up into blisters.

Clay gasped, and took a step back. He looked around, and found a bucket. He grabbed it and ran to the water trough, filled it with the cloudy red water and ran back to sunny.

He poured the water over her arm, focusing on the metal band. The bracelet steamed and fizzled as it rapidly cooled. He ran back to the trough and got more water, this time to cool her ear. Then he got a third bucket and poured it gently over all the burns.

Sunny was crying, weakly, like she was on the verge of passing out. Her sobs were hoarse, and she held the damaged arm close to her.

Clay felt a shiver go through him as he began to fully comprehend what had happened to her.

He dropped the bucket and gently lifted her off the floor. Clay cradled sunny in his arms as he felt tears sting his eyes.

"It's okay,". He whispered, "it's all over now. You will be okay now."

Sunny threw her good arm around his neck and buried her head in his chest. She cried and shivered, her little body was quaking in his arms. Clay held her. It was all he could do.

* * *

**Okay, to be honest, I could end the story right here. I felt that this chapter was a little choppy, lower quality than the rest. This was also my last prewritten chapter. I have the next chapter finished, and I have the very last chapter done. But between those two, I have some important things that need to be covered, and I'm not sure how to do it. I'm having a hard time getting from point A to B. You see, it's been a long time since I read wof, and when I sit down to write, the story dosent just come to me like it used to. I am beating my head against a wall as I try to think of how to write it.**

**So, in short, I feel like this could end it. But maybe I'm wrong. Do you think the story has gone far enough? Or do you think it is incomplete? Please let me know.**


	12. Chapter12

**I'm back.**

**After reading several of your reviews, it appears that y'all want me to finish this. So, here's the deal. This chapter has been written out and waiting. The last chapter is written and waiting. And between here and there are several pages of writing that need to be organized and expanded on. I have the skeleton of the ending, now I just have to hang some meat on it. But here's the problem.**

**It's spring time. And unlike everyone else, I don't have a lot of free time. I live on a farm, and the crops don't care if there's a pandemic. I have a busy schedule at the moment: ****fields to plant, firewood to cut, and, a tractor to rebuild. Not to mention all of my normal chores. I have been thinking about this story almost nonstop (bad idea when running a chainsaw. Always, ALWAYS stay focused when running a chainsaw) but I haven't had time to sit down and write. And when I do get the time, I am never sitting long enough to let my mind engage. So in short, I cannot promise you a schedule. I will update when I can, no matter how sparadic that gets, but I do intend to finish this. Like I said, I have the skeleton written out, I just need to fill it in.**

**Thank you to all my reviewers this week. **

-**queenglorythefirst: first place!**

**I'm glade that scarlets death felt appropriately written. I actually checked out all of the first series of wof before the craziness hit, but unfortunately haven't been able to sit down and read. I kinda wish I could get the Kung flu, then maybe I would have some downtime. 98% of people recover from it, so it's not like it would kill me.**

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**-dragon349295: second,**

**The story shall continue. By the way, I was scrolling through the story's here of fanfiction, and I stumbled across one called 'world of torture.' I guess the whole 'scarlet torments the dragonets' isn't that original of an idea after all. Are there many more out there like this? It doesn't sound like I'm copying anyone, does it?**

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**-oragonking: I know that. But I'm afraid that I'm missing your point. Yes, they all end up together in the books, but this is fanfiction. Also, why aren't you more upset about deathbringer? **

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**Cricketsundew: well, a fellow ww2 nerd, how nice. Do you collect anything? I have a tiny collection of ww2 equipment and scale models of planes and tanks, plus stacks of books I will never have time to read. I'm writing several alternative history stories, almost like 'what if?' Scenarios.**

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-**nonya: don't worry, you will find out what happens to Starflight and glory. **

**...eventually. Just as soon as I have time to write.**

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**-donhp: see me at the bottom.**

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**-alpaca: I'll have to look out for that show. I'm glad you liked the chapter, but I don't know how twisty the ending will be. **  


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**-blackberry avar: sorry about the name, autocorrect strikes again. It's all part of the joys of typing on a phone. I've had it change the word 'Viking' to 'bikini'.  
**

**As for the rest, see me at the bottom as well.**  


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**Alright, here's chapter 12**

The air was cool and dry. A gentle breeze was blowing, rustling the tree branches and tall grass. The sky was cloudless and brilliant with stars. One of the moons was full, another was waxing. Crickets and night insects sang quietly, adding perfect harmony to the sighing breeze.

The dragonets of destiny were huddled around a little fire. They lay in an alcove at the base of a cliff, atop a small grassy hill that led to a wooded valley below. They were in the foothills of the claws to the clouds mountains, not far from where they had been captured. Behind them, the entrance to scarlets cave was hidden in a wrinkle of the rocky wall.

Clay and tsunami were the only ones awake. Tsunami and the other three were lying by the fire, while clay paced restlessly around their camp Glory and starflight were still unconscious, having shown no signs of recovery since they had been carried out of the cave. Sunny had slowly cried herself to sleep, cradling her injured arm. Her ear and her forearm were covered in horrific blisters, and the scales around the damaged areas had turned black, standing out in stark contrast with her golden scales.

Clay would sit down and fidget, looking around distractedly. Then he would get up, check on the others, and then go back to pacing. He carried the blood covered spear he had used in their escape. Tsunami was armed with a knife she had taken from the forge. Together, they kept watch.

After a few hours, clay threw a piece of bark on the fire.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" mumbled tsunami.

"What? What is?"

"The fire." she said, "someone could see it. From a long ways away."

Clay shrugged.

"I guess they could. But who is out flying around the mountains at this time of night? Beside, maybe it would be good if someone saw us." he looked at his unconscious friends, "we need help."

"What if … there are more skywings working for scarlet?" she asked.

Clay stopped pacing for a second, back turned to her. He gazed off into the dark valley. There was nothing but the trees and the star filled sky.

"I don't think there are. I hope not." he looked at the spear in his talons, "I don't know how they could follow her."

Tsunami sighed and tried to adjust herself to lay more comfortably.

"I hope you're right." she breathed, "I don't know how we could possibly fight them off."

Clay turned and walked to her.

"Don't worry about it. Why don't you get some rest tsunami? You need it." he said.

Tsunami groaned and rubbed her eyes.

" I know. I wish I could, but I can't sleep." She looked over at the others. "Every time I try, I see poor fatespeaker, or deathbringer. And I'm too worried about all of us."

Clay nodded. His eyes drifted to the holes in her shoulders and snout, where the phosfernt scales had been.

"Tsunami, what do we do now?" he asked.

Tsunami shook her head.

"I don't know clay. I wish I did. I wish we had a dream visitor or something, but i think scarlet took the one we had. It wasn't in fatespeakers bag, and I have no idea where it could have gone."

Clay looked up at the sky.

"We need help." he said again, as if asking the moons for a miracle.

Tsunami nodded. She reached out and felt glorys forehead, as if checking for fever.

"Tomorrow we need to figure out where we are. I'll have to stay here. Do you think that you could find your way to the rainforest?"

Clay nodded.

"I think so. Scarlet couldn't have carried us that far from where she caught us. It should be over there." he pointed across the valley. Tsunami nodded.

"I think you're right. How long do you think it will take?"

Clay shrugged. He moved away from her to check on sunny, who was fidgeting and moaning quietly in her sleep.

"I'll go as fast as i can. But I'm not eager about leaving you all behind."

"There's no choice." she said. Henodded.

"I know. I'm just … worried that I'll fail again."

Tsunami shivered and leaned closer to the fire.

"Clay, you didn't fail." she said, "if anything, I did. I let scarlet get to me. I gave up and let her take the others." she looked down at herself, regret filling her face. "I stopped fighting … and it cost fatespeaker her life."

"That wasn't your fault." said clay.

"it sure feels like it is." said tsunami

"Well it's my fault I took so long escaping. I could have gotten out sooner, if i had tried harder."

"Clay, don't say that. You did what you could." said tsunami, "at least you weren't like me. You didn't give up."

"But you didn't-"

"Yes i did. I laid there and let her take them."

Clay was about to respond to that, to tell her about how it was his fault and not hers, when they suddenly heard a loud cracking sound. Tsunamis head snapped up, clay whirled to face the noise, spear held at the ready.

The noise had come from down the slope, from the thick valley woods. There was nothing to see.

"What is it?" whispered tsunami.

"I dont know." said clay, "Stay here,"

He took the spear and stepped out of the firelight. The night was cold away from the fire, and he felt the urge to shiver. He slowly made his way down the small grade letting his eyes adjust to the dark. His head was on a swivel, looking all around for any signs of trouble. He made it to the bottom of the hill and approached the forest, stopping at the edge of the trees. The forest rose up abruptly, like a wall. Clay held the spear tightly, trying to peer into the trees. He saw nothing, and heard nothing. But he felt as though someone was watching him. He swallowed hard. Clay called out, in a low voice,

"Hello? Who's there?"

He heard no response. Clay looked around, back up the hill where the dim fireglow reflected off the cliff walls.

He jumped when he suddenly heard footsteps, and swung around to face the woods, just as a black silhouette stepped from the trees. It was a dragon, slightly larger than him.

"Who's that? Who's there?!"

"Clay?" said the figure, "is that you?"

Clay blinked a second, lowering the spear in disbelief.

"... Deathbringer?" he said, "I thought you … is that you?!."

Deathbringer limped towards him, and clay saw that he was walking on three legs. As he left the shadows of the trees the moonlight suddenly illuminated the black dragon. He stopped a tail length from clay, and the two stared at each other in disbelief. Then deathbringer's face split into a smile.

"Oh my gosh, it is you! Clay! You have no idea how good it is to see you!" his voice was full of relief and excitement, and he began to circle clay, looking him over. "Are you alright? I've been looking for you guys for three days, are the others with you?"

Clay nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm okay. The others are up there." he pointed at the firelight reflecting off the cliff wall. Deathbringer appeared satisfied that clay was okay, coming back to stand in front of him.

"I saw your fire, I was across the valley on the next ridge. I wasn't sure if it was you guys or scarlet, so i tried to scope it out on foot." his smile fell suddenly. "Where is scarlet? What happened? And are the others okay?"

Clay rubbed his forehead, accidently breaking the scab he had gotten from the door.

"uh , scarlets dead. So are her helpers. She kind of … tortured us."

Deathbringer's eyes widened.

"What about the others? Are they okay?"

Clay exhaled through clenched teeth.

"No."

"Take me to them."

* * *

They climbed the hill slowly. Deathbringer had one of his fore legs held close to his body, and a white bandage was tied around his shoulder. The bandage was holding a pad tightly against the injury in his back, keeping pressure on the wound. Walking was hard and painful, clay could tell by the way he grunted and clenched his jaw.

When they came back into the firelight, they saw tsunami sitting up, holding her knife. When she saw them, she blinked in surprise.

"Deathbringer?" she said, "you're alive? How?"

Deathbringer gave her a pained smile, holding out his wings, as if to say 'ta-da! Here I am'.

"Long story." he said. His eyes swept over the other three still forms. He counted them, then re-counted. He turned to clay. "We're missing one, wheres-"

"Gone." said tsunami, "she's gone."

Deathbringer blinked, then shook his head.

"Poor thing." he said, "nobody deserves that."

They stood quietly for a moment, each with their own thoughts on that. Then deathbringer shook his head, and unslung the leather bag he carried. He unbuttoned it and dumped it into the grass by the edge of the fire. Out fell several throwing stars, a small blowgun, a knife, and an olive green canvas bag. He picked it up and opened it.

"What's that?" asked clay.

"My blow out kit." said deathbringer, "or what's left of it. I had to use it to stabilize myself." he pulled out two wads of bandages and several small jars. He looked over the dragonets, looking unsure.

"I don't think I have enough for all of you." he said.

Tsunami gently laid back down.

"I don't need anything. Me and glory both have surface injuries, although she was knocked unconscious."

Deathbringer made his way over to the still forms. He gently touched glorys face, and a pained look passed through his eyes.

"What about the other two?" he asked, not looking away from the still rainwing.

"Starflights unconscious too, but he has a deep stab wound. Sunny's asleep, but she was severely burned."

Deathbringer gazed at glory for a few seconds more, then pulled his eyes away. He shook his head and looked over the other two.

"I can't help the stab wounds." He said, "other than trying to clean it. If you have some water, we can wrap sunny's burns."

Tsunami looked at clay, who hesitated. The last thing he wanted to do was go back into that horrific cave, past the bodies of fatespeaker and the skywings. But he also wanted to help sunny, so it was an easy choice to make.

* * *

After clay had gotten the water, deathbringer set the bandages in the bucket to soak. They woke sunny, who was surprised to see deathbringer, but not overjoyed like they had expected. Instead, she was unnervingly quiet, watching as deathbringer applied some paste from one of the jars to her burns. The whole scene was eerily silent, until clay couldn't stand it.

"How did you survive the attack deathbringer?" he asked.

Deathbringer looked up momentarily from where he was gently rubbing the paste around the iron band in sunny's arm.

"Dumb luck." he said, then went back to his work. "I was so worried about scarlet, I never thought to look around. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late." he took another scoop and started gently working farther up sunny's arm, toward the shoulder. "On the bright side, when I looked up at that skywing, the spear missed it's target. From what I can tell, the blade bounced off my ribs and went down and behind my shoulder. Most of the damage is internal, but not fatal."

Sunny winced, and he drew back his talons. "Sorry," he said.

"It's okay." she whispered.

Deathbringer took a little more paste and gently began to apply it to her ear.

"I'm not sure I'll ever walk the same again. I don't think I will fly normally either, but at least I'm alive. And right now, I'm just grateful that I found you guys."

He finished applying the paste. deathbringer picked up the bucket and reached in, pulling one of the bandages from the water. He looked at the wet, pinkish bandage in momentary confusion, then looked up at clay.

"Is this …?"

"I hope not." said clay. He shivered at the thought of blood in the water.

Deathbringer began to wrap sunnys arm in the wet bandage, taking utmost care to avoid causing her any further pain. Clay circled around their little camp, then checked on glory and starflight.

Both were still unconscious and showed no signs of improvement. The stab wound in starflights side was oozing a clear liquid that glistened in the firelight. Clay took the last piece of bandage Deathbringer had, and wrapped it around the unconscious nightwing to stop the bleeding.

By the time he had finished, deathbringer had finished on sunnys burns. He packed up his bag, then limped over to glory. He laid down beside her and let out a huge sigh.

"At least it's all over now." He said, trying to lift their spirits, "you will never have to worry about scarlet again. You're safe now. We'll all get better, starflight and glory will wake up soon, and everything will be okay."

Clay knew he was trying to help, but he could hear the worry in deathbringer's voice.

"It won't be okay for Fatespeaker." Said tsunami.

* * *

**I'm sorry for the abrupt end, but I can't think of another way to end the chapter. I will try to write when I can, but today I'm going to be painting sheet metal, among other things. Please review, what did you like, what did you not like?**

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**-donhp: I was a little nervous when I saw your review. When you suggested having deathbringer survive, I thought, "oh no, is my story to predictable?" Fortunately, we have some very different outcomes, but thank you very much for offering your help. It means a lot to me to see that others are willing to suggest things in order to help me.**

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**Blackberry avar: I agree that Fatespeaker kind of got the short end of the stick. I really tried to give her some attention before she died, and I hope I did her character right. Now I have to give more development to Starflight, sunny and deathbringer. But it ain't gonna be easy.**

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**Also, I'm going to have some spoilers from the third series here.**

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**book thirteen is odd, very odd. The whole third series is the same way. To be honest, I don't like the third series. My reason is because I feel like we are getting too much of a good thing. The first arch was good, the second was ... eh. The third is out of wack with everything else. The feeling I get from it is like when there is a good movie, but then they keep making sequels.**

**However, you asked what I thought pertaining to the magic.**

**Well, on one hand I like it that the animus magic stopped working, even if that didn't make sense. But then it was replaced with the ability to magically make stuff grow, or with weird mind control plants. That is a new level of no thank you for me. So I still don't like it, but not in the same way I didn't like the overload of animus magic. Now it's a weird, magical tree fairy ... thing ... that I don't really like. Maybe I'm just picky, but in the end, I really don't like magic. **

**That's not the only reason why I don't like the third series. There are similar reasons for why I don't like the second one.**

**I don't like all of the romance that is running around in the other books. The first series had some, each character had a love interest, and there was even a love triangle. But I think it was kept in check. **

**On the other hand, the second series is all one big triangle between moon and her two interests, and with kinkajou and turtle as well. The third series has blue chasing cricket, and sundews romance is sort of thrown in your face.**

**I'm not a big fan of romance. Which might make me a bit of a minority in this fandom. I prefer reading about the bond between siblings and close friends, groups who stick together like a family, and care about each other in a non-romantic way. Which is a big reason why I like the first series.**


	13. Chapter13

**And I'm back! Who thought I had died or was never coming back?**

**Okay, so that may have just been me. It felt weird to not upload last Friday. A little explanation, this chapter may not be as good as the rest, I'm sorry. I have really been working my quality control, but I'm afraid that this one just didn't come to me like the rest have. I may have to edit it later. **

**On the bright side, I made a lot of progress on my tractor. It is mostly repainted, and it runs pretty well. There's still more work to be done, but hopefully I'll have more writing time.**

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**-queenglorythefirst: I'll look out for that series. My sister said that one of those books is free on kindle. I'm glad to have brought a little light back to the story, it's good to see deathbringer alive and somewhat well.**

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**Dragon349295: it's a little more than that. I just don't like magic, I can deal with a little here and there, like what blackberry avar said, little magical tools. But I don't really like magic. I'm not sure why, maybe it's because I'm a little too much of a realist, and magic isn't realistic? That might be it. **

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**Donhp: I started reading your story, but then haven't had time to finish it. It's a very interesting portrayal of phyria. I'm trying not to rush, but I also don't want to leave everyone hanging.**

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**Blackberry avar: yeah, I don't do the shipping bit. I guess I don't mind other people writing it, they do have the right to their own preferences after all, but it can get a little old. **

**I assume when you talk about the flood, you mean halo. Other than that, you lost me. I have never played halo, or many video games in general, so I'm sorry I don't understand your references. If you would believe it, I have grown up without a tv my whole life, so I'm kinda living under a rock over here. **

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**Cricketsundew: I made a bet with myself on when you would upload next. I was a day off. I hope you can get the time to keep going on your story.**

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**Nonya: I'm afraid I can only juggle so many characters at this point. I don't foresee any second arch characters coming in, but we'll see.**

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**Wolfreader: thanks for pointing that out. I think I got it fixed, but my phone has been doing strange things with my uploads. If you go back to chapter two, there are five new sentences that weren't there before because the somehow got chopped out.**

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**sorry for the long intro. I think next time I will move responses to the bottom.**

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It had taken a few days to finally get everyone to safety. Without a dream visitor, clay had to fly to the rainforest, tell the whole story to grandeur, organize a rescue party and come back. They tried to keep this information quiet, fearing the repercussions that may follow if word spread. Unfortunately, when the dragonets were brought back to the safety of the rainforest village, they were greeted by a crowd of nervous rainwings. Word had gotten out of what had happened to the dragonets of destiny, and more importantly to the rainwings, their queen. Now there was a nervous murmuring going on through the village, the closest the rainwings ever got to an uproar.

When they arrived at the infirmary, the healers were completely overwhelmed with the conditions of their patients. They turned varying shades of green, and could do little more than stare at the injured patients lying before them.

Grandeur came in soon after the dragonets arrived at the infirmary. She looked at the rainwing doctors, and barked at them to get to work with treating the patients. Unfortunately, grandeur was the only rainwing who seemed capable of looking at the dragonets without feeling sick. The healers soon made it obvious that they wouldn't be of much help at all.

Grandeur shook her head in exasperation.

"Soft headed, lily livered, and squeamish." she grumbled, "what pathetic excuses of doctors you lot are."

"We need help, now," said Deathbringer, feeling starflights forehead, "I think starflights is running a fever."

Grandeur nodded.

"I sent my fastest messenger to get queen thorn. She's the closest, and I'll bet she can be of help."

Clay was standing beside sunny. She was lying on one of the cots, her burned arm was wrapped in a green blanket deathbringer had given her.

"You hear that sunny?" he said, "Your mom's coming."

Sunny nodded, but didn't meet his eyes or say anything. Clay watched her, worriedly. He reached out and touched her shoulder, prompting her to look at him. "Are you okay?" he asked. Sunny sighed.

"Im fine." she murmured, and looked away again. Clay didn't believe her. But he didn't know how to help her at the moment. He turned to tsunami, who was leaning against a cot because she didn't want to lay down.

"Tsunami, we could send a messenger to your mother too, and tell her what happened."

Tsunami grimaced and shook her head.

"No, no not yet." she said.

"But dont you want your mother to-"

"No!" barked tsunami, "I don't want her to know, not yet. At least not until I am able to stand up on my own. Can you imagine how she would react? She would freak out, maybe even try to take me away from you guys, back to the sea kingdom. I don't want to see her until i am ready to stand up to her."

Clay blinked in surprise at her outburst. He hadn't thought tsunami would be so outrightly opposed to seeing her mother.

"But what about anemone?" he asked, "if coral comes, she would bring anemone, and then she could magically heal everyone. Coral wouldn't have to worry about you."

Tsunami sighed, looking conflicted. She glanced over starflight and glory.

"I don't know." she said. "I really want everyone to be okay. I want my phlorescent scales back, but I'm not sure anemone is the answer to our problems."

"But she's an animus. She could heal everyone, make them perfectly healthy."

"It's not that simple." said tsunami, "for starters, we can't just order her to come here and use her magic. Although I'm sure she would want to help us on her own."

"Then why not?"

"Because," said tsunami, "it's not a good idea. Do you all understand what happens to animus dragons when they use their power? They lose themselves, a little bit at a time. My sister has been using her magic ever since it was discovered, blister wanted her to be a weapon. I don't know how much more she can use, before she loses her soul. I don't know how big of a spell it would be to completely heal everyone. But what if it's the tipping point? What if it turns anemone evil, and in the act of helping us we set a dangerous dragon loose on phyria? I don't want my sister to become that dragon."

There was quiet in the room for a minute.

Grandeur stepped up.

"Tsunami has a point." she said, "it's a very hard choice to make, but it may be for the best. It is selfish of us to destroy a dragonet to help the others. Besides, word of this disaster will get out, it's already spreading. I for one, did not know the seawings had an animus, and I doubt many others knew. It would not be right to expose their secret, and if the dragonets of destiny are miraculously healed, then everyone will know. That would bring more danger to the seawing tribe, and to tsunami's sister. The world may be at peace now, but i can think of so many problems that would arise once word spread of the seawing heir being an animus."

"Then … what are we going to do?" asked clay.

"We'll take care of them." said deathbringer, "the old fashioned way."

The nightwing assassin limped over to glory, felt her forehead, and sat down beside her with a sigh. "I just hope nothing bad happens because of this." he said, "who knows what crazy rumors are floating around. It's obvious the rainwings know that something is wrong, and i'm sure the nightwings do as well."

"We already hold an uneasy alliance with the nightwings." said grandeur, "let's hope that rainwing gossip doesn't spark civil unrest."

"I fear things may get messy though." said deathbringer, "poor glory will have a very … intense … situation to deal with when she wakes up."

Suddenly there was the sound of approaching wingbeats from outside. They all heard the creak of the platform adjusting to the weight of several dragons, and in a moment, queen thorn of the sandwings stepped through the doorway. She stopped to let her eyes adjust to the darker interior, then took in the group huddled around the cots.

"I came as soon as I could." she said, "your messenger told me you needed help. what happened?"

Everyone looked at each other, unsure of how to put it.

"Queen scarlet …" said deathbringer. He didn't need to say more. Thorn shook her head.

"I thought so. I hoped not, but I had a suspicion."

"She's gone now," said tsunami, "we won't have to worry about her anymore."

Thorn sighed.

"Good. at least there is one bright side in all of this." she left the doorway, heading straight for sunny. "I brought one of my medics. Pallor is very good at medicine, he can help."

Following thorn through the doorway came six claws, then smolder, without flower. They looked around, unsure of what to do in the current situation. Finally, in came a very pale sandwing with startling black eyes. He was of medium size, but very well built. His tail was curled in a tight spiral, and his wings were held in close. Hanging from his neck and shoulders were many canvas bags and pouches. He took a second to study everyone, then made a beeline for the dragonets.

Grandeur stepped back to allow him room. She nodded in approval as he unslung the pouches and set to inspecting his patients.

"Thank you very much, queen thorn. We rainwings are unfamiliar with anything more serious than the average bruise or bellyache. Glory was organizing for an actual medical school to train our healers."

"I thought you would need all the help you could get." said thorn. Her eyes never left sunny, who she held in a gentle embrace. Sunny still hadn't said very much, and had shown very little reaction. But now that her mother was there, she had buried her face into thorns shoulder and had begun to breathe erratically, like she was on the verge of crying.

Pallor was making an assessment of starflight. His talons were quick and confident as he unwrapped each injury and inspected it. Everyone was watching him. Pallor ignored them, and never said a word. It was very quiet.

After he finished with starflight, pallor moved to glory. He was quick in looking over her many cuts and gashes, but he took extreme care when he inspected her head and face. Glory's scales were white, barely lighter than pallor's own scales.

Finally, pallor rested her head gently on the cot. He opened one of his bags and began to pull out clean white bandages.

"These two are the worst cases, correct?"

"Yes," said grandeur.

He nodded and removed several jars from the pack.

"Since the others are conscious and appear to be stable, I will leave them for later."

"Would you like me to go and get more help?" offered smolder.

Pallor shook his head, never looking away from his work.

"No. too many cooks in the kitchen. There's not much I can do anyways, so this shouldn't take long."

"What do you mean?" asked clay. His voice was a note higher, a worried pitch, "can't you help them?"

Pallor nodded. He began cleaning starflights injuries.

"Yes, I can help. But there is only so much I can do. When were these injuries cleaned?"

Grandeur stepped forward.

"We tried to clean them as soon as they arrived." she said.

"And before that," said Clay, "back at the cave, me and tsunami cleaned them then."

Pallor nodded. He started with the deep stab wound in starflights side.

"I see. This injury was made by a dirty blade, and then left uncared for. When you washed it, you only cleaned the outside. I'm afraid your friend has an infection. All i can do is clean out the injuries, and watch his health."

"How bad of an infection?" asked tsunami.

Pallor didn't look at her.

"It's had some time to set in. I'm not going to lie to you, when an infection sets in, it can be very dangerous. I will do what i can, but it's going to be a challenge."

"Can we help?" asked clay, "is there anything I can do?"

Pallor looked briefly at him. Then his eyes flicked to tsunami, and he said,

"Go get clean water. That seawing is a bloody mess, you can help by cleaning those injuries so they are ready for me to attend to."

Clay looked at tsunami. Only then did it occur to him that they had been so worried about everyone else, that tsunamis injuries were still uncared for. Tsunami was still covered in dried blood, turning her blue scales to a sickly shade of brown. Clay nodded, and rushed out the door.

* * *

Sunny and thorn sat quietly out of the way as pallor tended to the others. Thorn held her firmly for several minutes, and sunny leaned into the embrace. She loved the reassurance and warmth that thorn seemed to radiate. For several minutes, she felt comforted and safe, temporarily forgetting about everything that had happened, focusing only on thorns calming presence. They didn't say anything for a while, but when thorn finally pulled away sunny felt oddly cold and uneasy out of her embrace.

"Are you okay?" asked thorn.

Sunny looked down at the cot. She shrugged. Thorn watched her quiet behavior. "Can you stand?" she asked. Sunny nodded. "Can you walk?"

Again, sunny nodded.

Thorn stood back up, and stepped away from the cot.

"Would you come with me?" she asked.

Sunny looked up at her, then down at her arm. It was still wrapped in the green blanket, protecting the injuries and hiding them. She didn't want to get up, but she did want to follow her mother.

Sunny took her time as she slid off the cot and gently stood. She leaned against the cot as she readjusted the blanket on her arm, then followed thorn. They left the infirmary, and stopped on one of the platforms outside. Thorn turned to sunny, and sat down.

"What's wrong sunny?" she asked, "you're so quiet, it scares me. What's the matter?"

Sunny again looked away from her eyes. Normally she would have been overjoyed for a chance to talk with her mother, but right now, it just felt awkward. Thorn sighed.

"Look, sunny, I understand how you feel. It's a terrible thing to lose a friend, especially if they died at the talons of someone like scarlet. But you can't just let it fester inside you, you need to let it out. Tell me what's wrong."

Sunny squeezed her eyes shut. What a question that was, how could she possibly talk about it? How could she just simply retell the story of their terrible ordeal, she wanted to forget about it, not remember it.

Thorn saw her inner turmoil. She decided to change her approach. An easier question.

"Can you show me your arm?" she asked. Sunny looked up at her once more. Her vision was partially obscured by the bandage around her head, and her injured arm was held protectively close to her chest. She slowly sat down and unwrapped the blanket.

Sunny didn't look at thorn, but she heard her mother inhale sharply when she saw the injury. The iron bracelet was still there, and her arm was discolored with oozing blisters. The burns were swollen and peeling, the destroyed scales were fragil to the touch. It was painful just to look at.

"What happened." thorn asked, more like it was an order than a question.

Sunny looked at her injury, as if studying it for the correct answer.

"Scarlet …. Burned me. She put that bracelet on me while it was hot."

"How badly does it hurt?" asked thorn.

Sunny looked up at her.

"Not very bad." she said, "both this and my ear, I can't really feel it that well."

Thorn only looked more worried.

"Can you move your talons?" She asked. Sunny looked back at her arm, like she had to watch each talon first, to make sure they worked right. She tried to make a fist, and instantly felt a wave of pain spark up her arm. It was enough to make her gasp, and thorn leaned in, worried eyes taking in every movement. Sunny gritted her teeth and forced her mind to stay on task. She slowly curled her talons inwards, but couldn't quite make a fist. When she knew they wouldn't close any farther she relaxed her talons again, and the pain began to subside. She felt dizzy and lightheaded all of a sudden, and stars floated in her vision. She felt as though she may fall over, but thorn was suddenly there, holding her.

"Sunny are you okay? You got awfully pale, do you need to lay down?"

Sunny shook her head. It took several minutes for the dizziness to subside, and when she felt a little better she picked up the blanket and rewrapped her arm. Thorn had one wing around her, like a hug that sheltered her from the world. It felt really good to be in her mother's embrace, although sunny didn't feel good at all.

"I'll have pallor look you over when he's done with the others," Said thorn, "burns are serious injuries, and the last thing you need is to get infected."

"Can pallor fix it?" she asked.

Thorn nodded.

"Yes, I think he can. He will take good care of all of you."

Sunny nodded. They stood quietly, awkwardly avoiding each other's eyes. Sunny felt so unsure of what to do or say. Her burns stung, throbbing painfully with each beat of her heart. They reminded her of the caves, of scarlet and the horror she had put them through. She couldn't stop the mental images that flashed through her mind. Scarlet twisting the band of steel, tsunami struggling to save everyone, glory and starflight limp on the floor. Fatespeakers final, terrified screams. Sunny's breathing became erratic, her knees began to feel weak.

Then she broke down crying. The memories of scarlets torture flooded through her mind, and she was overwelmed with horror and grief.

"Oh mother, it was awful! Scarlet caught us, and she killed fatespeaker, and she - she…"

Sunny lost the power of speech as she was overcome by tears. She covered her face and wept openly, unashamedly. Thorn reached out and pulled her into a hug. She held her sobbing daughter, and wished that she never had to let go.

"Oh sunny," she murmured, " it's going to be alright, you'll see. Just don't lose hope."

" I hope you're right mom," Sunny whispered, " I hope you're right."

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**I felt that sunny needed her mom.**

**Alright, I'll be gone for awhile again. Interesting thing that popped into my head, a story idea I may write. I want to write it now, but I feel I need to finish this one first. I also need to get back to work on my other stories, fanfiction has been a real detour.**

**I want to write a story on shales daughter, what happened to her.**

**Also, you know that question of where were you when you learned the towers fell? Well, where was I when your review came in.**

**Queenglorythefirst: walking into the garage.**

**Dragon349295: sautéing onions**

**Donhp: cleaning parts**

**Blackberry avar: running an angle grinder**

**Cricketsundew: picking up parts in town**

**Nonya: painting sheet metal**

**Wolfreader: I can't remember. **

**Anyway, not that it's important or anything, I just thought it may be interesting. Thanks for reading, please review.**


	14. Chapter14

**At long last, I am back. What has it been, two weeks? It really bothers me not to keep up my old schedule. Some interesting things happened while I was working on this. In short, the weather went from 70 degrees to snowing. Also, I accidentally burned my hand pretty badly, Which has made me re-evaluate how sunny reacts to her burns. But hers are much much more serious than mine, obviously.**

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**In order to organize this, my responses are at the bottom of the chapter.**

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Clay was sitting on the platform where the rainwings would sometimes gather to eat. He was half heartedly eating a meal of fruit, and watching the rainwings around him. Clay wasn't hungry. He hadn't felt hungry since before scarlet had captured them, and had eaten very little in the time since. But Pallor had told him to eat something. In fact, he had demanded it. The sandwing medic had said that Clay was pale, shaky, and weak from lack of nutrition. He forbade letting him into the infirmary until Clay had eaten a full sized meal.

So Clay, for the first time ever, forced himself to eat.

Clay didn't like the curious looks he was getting from the rainwings. He avoided their eyes, and instead looked at his talons as he peeled another bright tropical fruit whose name he couldn't remember. His mind drifted, but not very far. Clay's mind had been stuck on one track for the past several days, his thoughts went around and around, always coming back to the same subject.

Clay felt as though he had failed. The others insisted that he hadn't, that he had done everything that he could, but he wasn't convinced. Clay couldn't stop re-running scenarios through his head, trying to think of what he should have done differently. He should have used the table as a lever earlier, he should have seen the solution to lifting the door. He shouldn't have been so overly cautious, he should have ran down the tunnels to find the others, maybe he would have made it in time to save Fatespeaker. Maybe he could have saved Sunny from getting burned, and Starflight from getting stabbed. He wished he hadn't killed Shale, and wished he had found some other way to deal with Corey.

Because of the inner turmoil, Clay had never eaten food that was so tasteless and unsatisfying. Looking at the cheerfully colored tropical fruit in his talons, he felt he would throw up if he tried to eat another bite.

The sound of footsteps on the boardwalk pulled him from his thoughts. Normally, rainwings were too graceful to make any noise when they moved across the wooden planks, and so he wasn't surprised to look up and see Tsunami limping toward him.

Tsunami walked over to him and sat down, letting out a breath of relief.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

Tsunami shrugged.

"I don't know. Better, i guess. I can walk just fine, but my ribs are still horribly sore."

"And the others?"

Tsunami sighed. She picked up a mango and began to absently slice it with her talons.

"That's what I came to find you about. I have good news, and bad news."

Clay looked at her.

"What's the bad news?"

"The bad news," said Tsunami, taking her time, "is that starflight … isn't showing improvement. He's still unconscious, he's running a fever, and his infection isn't getting any better."

Clay sighed. "The good news though," said Tsunami, "is that pallor said glory is no longer comatose. She came out of it this morning, now she's just in a very deep sleep. We were able to get a response from her."

"That's great!" said Clay, then he faltered, "wait, a response? What do you mean?"

"Like, you know how when you bump into somebody while they're asleep? And they groan, maybe roll over? Like that. He said she will wake up soon."

Clay felt some relief.

"What about Sunny and Deathbringer? I haven't talked to them yet."

Tsunami shrugged.

"Deathbringer is making a steady recovery. He won't leave Glory, unless I make him. And sunny, well, she's still quiet. But Pallor said that her burns weren't infected. He left a few minutes ago, he said he was going back to the sand kingdom to get some tools, you know, to cut that band off of sunnys arm."

Clay flinched.

"That sounds painful. Is Thorn going to be back today?"

"I don't know. She does have a kingdom to run after all, although i'm sure she will take every chance she can to be here."

"I hope so." said Clay, "it was really good for Sunny to talk to her. I think it was just what she needed."

"Yeah. I think it helped. At least now she doesn't seem to be shy of us. That scared me, Sunny is not supposed to be shy."

"I just hope sunny will be okay." said Clay, "what She had to witness, and endure, it could really change her."

Tsunami nudged him.

"She'll be okay." she said, "we'll all be okay. It's just going to take a little time and healing. We'll get through this, but for now we just have to wait."

Clay sighed.

"I don't want to wait. I wish it was over already." as the words left his mouth, Clay remembered the brief conversation about using Anemones powers. Would it really be so bad if Tsunamis sister used her powers? Would it really turn her into a dangerous monster? He looked over at Tsunami, who met his eyes, and he realized she was thinking about the same thing. But the look in her eyes and the memory of her outburst reminded clay that for now, Anemone was out of the question. Clay felt a little bit guilty as he realized that he was thinking of Tsunamis sister as a tool, the same way Blister had. His intentions were much better than those of the late sandwing heir, but it was no excuse to think of anemone as a pawn to get what he wanted. He looked away, back at the barely touched fruit in his talons. There was some awkward silence for a few minutes.

"You know we have to go back there," said Tsunami. Clay looked back up and met her eyes.

"Back where?" he asked, "you mean … the cave?" Tsunami nodded.

"Yes. we owe it to Fatespeaker, to give her a decent burial. And we should probably try to find back the dream visitor too."

Clay shuddered.

" I don't want to go back." he said, "I don't want to go within a hundred miles of that place. I want to forget it ever existed."

"I know what you mean." said Tsunami, "but we have to. It wouldn't be right to leave fatespeaker like that. She deserves to be laid to rest in a more … dignified … manner. And then when we've done that, we can bury that cave, seal it off from the rest of the world, until it and Scarlet are totally forgotten. Like they never existed in the first place."

Clay slowly nodded.

"You're right." he said, "I don't want to go, but you're right."

"Don't worry," said Tsunami, "it won't be right away. We'll go back when everyone is okay, and somewhat back to normal."

Clay nodded. They were quiet again for several minutes. Tsunami finished peeling her mango and took a small bite. Clay ignored his food, and instead watched the trees all around him sway gently in the wind. He thought about the huge difference between the warm, beautiful rainforest and that terrible, cold and dark cave. After everything that had happened there, the mere thought of the place made him shiver. He had come so close to losing his friends there, Fatespeaker had died there, it made him want to make sure that none of them ever went back, as if he was afraid somehow that scarlet would come back to life and finish what she had started. It also made him worry about his siblings. They were safe, to his knowledge, but after the incident in the caves, he was starting to realize just how quickly everything could go wrong. He also thought about Fatespeaker. Clay hadn't known her for very long, but in the time that she had been with them, he had started to look at her as another one of the dragonets, another one of his little siblings. And somewhere along the line, he had made the silent commitment to look out for her, just like he did for the others. But now she was gone, and he felt it was his fault she had died. Why, oh why couldn't he have tried harder to save them?

Finally, Clay stood, and threw aside what was left of his fruit.

"I'm going to check up on the others." He said, "I think i've eaten enough that pallor will let me stay."

Tsunami nodded.

"I'll be there in a while. Im going to catch some fresh air out here for a bit, maybe take a short nap. Come and get me if anything happens."

* * *

Clay used the boardwalks to get to the infirmary. It was much easier to walk than fly in the dense tree foliage. But it was also much slower than flying. All around him, Clay could feel the stares as he caught the attention of every rainwing he passed. They held low, murmured conversations, gesturing to him, and pretending not to have noticed him if he looked their way. He hated all the attention he drew, and sped up his pace, wanting to be away from as quickly as possible.

When he arrived at the infirmary, he was met by several rainwing guards. Grandeur had put her most alert rainwings in charge of watching over the injured dragonets and keeping curious onlookers at bay. Very few dragons were allowed to enter, aside from grandeur, pallor, deathbringer and the dragonets. Grandeur would only allow other rainwings to enter if they had a serious illness or injury. But being rainwings, with their easy going lifestyle, those ailments were almost nonexistent.

Clay stopped at the entrance as two of the four guards blocked the way with captured nightwing tridents. He stood patiently as one of them looked him over, as if making sure he really was a mudwing. Then with a nod, the rainwings pulled back the tridents and gestured for him to enter.

As Clay stepped inside, he took a quick headcount. Glory and starflight were still lying as he had seen them last, unconscious on their cots. Deathbringer was asleep on the floor next to Glory. He had stayed awake most of the previous night, watching over all of them. Sunny was awake, on the cot opposite the isle from glory. Her back was to him, and she was looking at something. She didn't hear him come in.

Clay moved towards them, stopping momentarily to check on starflight and glory. He felt another flash of guilt as he looked over their still forms. Starflights injuries looked to be healing well, except for the wound in his abdomen. The stab wound was a little swollen, inflamed and oozing. Clay tried to push back the worry, the fear that starflight might not be okay.

He shook his head and moved on to check Glory. The young rainwing queen's injuries also appeared to be healing well, and she appeared much more relaxed than starflight did beside her. Her scales were still white like snow, and clay wondered if she was in pain. He knew that white signaled distress, or pain in a rainwing, but did it always show what they were feeling, even when unconscious?

Clay remembered what Tsunami had said earlier. Glory was no longer in a coma, just a really deep sleep. He raised a talon, reaching out to touch her. Maybe he could wake her? Maybe she would wake up, and be okay, and make him stop worrying so much about her.

But he stopped himself. It was tempting. Clay wanted her to wake up so badly, but he also knew that it might be bad to wake her himself. After all, Pallor had let her sleep, and he obviously had good reasons.

Clay set his talon back on the floor and sighed. He would have to wait.

He turned away from Glory, to look at Sunny. The little sandwing still hadn't noticed him. He stood quietly, waiting to see if she would look up at him, or notice his presence.

But she didn't. After waiting for a few minutes, Clay gently reached out and touched her shoulder.

Sunny jumped, startled at his touch. She twisted around to look at him, and when she recognized Clay she relaxed.

"Hey Clay." she said, quietly. He knelt down, bringing himself to her eye level.

"Hey," he said, "how are you feeling?"

Sunny gave a half hearted shrug, turning her eyes back to her burned arm.

"Alright, I guess." she said. He waited for her to say more, but Sunny remained quiet. They sat in somewhat awkward silence for a few minutes. Clay couldn't help himself but to feel as though this was his fault too. Sunny was so quiet, and subdued. If only he had moved faster, if he had been just two minutes faster, this may have never happened to her. "You know, it's sort of weird." said sunny, breaking him out of his thoughts, "I've been trying to all day, but i just can't make it stop."

"What?" asked Clay, "make what stop?"

Sunny gestured to her injured arm without looking at him.

"It's been shaking since I woke up. Pallor said he's seen it happen before, and that it's not uncommon with severe burns."

Clay looked at her arm, but didn't notice anything, aside from the grotesque burns. Then he saw her talon, and it made sense. Sunny's talon was shaking, not severely, but shaking nonetheless. Her claws shivered unconsciously, little movements, trembling like a scared dragonet in the cold.

"Does it hurt?" he asked, feeling concern sweep through him. Sunny shook her head.

"No. no more than what it has. But the more I focus on it, the worse it gets. See?" she held up her arm, staring hard at her talon. The shivering increased slightly, and became more agitated as she grit her teeth and curled her talons into a loose fist. Clay watched her trembling talon for a few seconds, then looked at her.

"What did Pallor say about it?" he asked, "will it get better?"

Sunny shrugged.

"He said it might. He said as I get older it might get better, but it will never completely go away." she lowered her talon and sighed. "Maybe if i stopped thinking about it, it would stop. But I can't help myself, it's all i can think about."

Clay nudged her.

"Hey," he said, "it'll be alright. You'll get better, you're already handling this pretty well. I'm sure I would be crying right now if I had a burn like that, you're a lot stronger than everyone gives you credit for, Sunny."

Sunny gave a small, almost shy smile and ducked her head.

"Aw, thanks clay. But I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be crying, you're a lot tougher than me." She looked down at the ugly burns, turning her talon over gently. "Besides," she said, "it doesn't hurt that bad. Pallor said that's part of how burns work. He said the worst burns are the ones you can't feel."

Clay felt a wave of guilt punch him right in the stomach. His face fell, and he found himself staring awkwardly at the floor.

"I'm sorry, sunny." he said.

Sunny looked over at him, confusion written on her face.

"Sorry for what, clay?"

He sighed.

"If I had tried harder, if I had made myself move faster, this wouldn't have happened to you. You wouldn't have those terrible injuries, it's my fault Scarlet was able to hurt you."

Sunny didn't say anything for several moments. Clay didn't look at her, but he felt the confusion he had just caused. He mentally kicked himself for the awkward display of self blame, and tried to back-pedal. "I mean, um, if I hadn't taken so long, then I-"

"Clay, don't." said sunny, cutting him off. "It's not your fault clay. Nothing is. This," she said, holding up her injured talon, "this is Scarlets doing, not yours."

"But I let her do it." said Clay, "I sat in my cell while she tortured you."

Sunny shook her head.

"No Clay, that's what she wants you to think. That's the reason why she seperated you, she knew you would think that. But it's not your fault. Okay?"

Clay wasn't convinced. But he couldn't think of how to voice his feelings, so he shrugged, and said, "okay, I guess." 'But it's still my fault,' he thought.

* * *

By the time Pallor got back, Tsunami had rejoined them in the infirmary. Pallor used a pair of hooked tongs and a tiny clamp cutter to remove the band on Sunny's arm and the ring from her ear. It was an extremely painful procedure for Sunny, who tried her hardest not to scream as the metal was pulled away from the burned scales, taking large chunks of flesh with it. Clay and tsunami stood beside her the whole time, with clay letting sunny squeeze his wrist with her good talon to help deal with the pain. In the end, the metal was removed, and Pallor bandaged the burns with wet cloth covered in the healing pastes he had brought. Sunny layed on her side, breathing hard and trying not to faint. Clay massaged his talon where she had accidently scratched him with her sharp little claws, and Deathbringer, who had been awakened by the noise, stood quietly beside glory.

Pallor made sure that sunny was going to be okay, and when she began to calm down he started putting away his tools.

"Im sorry it hurts so badly," he said, "I have a few things that help with pain, but I'm afraid that nothing works on burns, for some reason."

Sunny gently held her injured arm close to her body.

"It's okay." she said quietly, "it already feels a little better, my talon is going numb again."

Pallor shook his head.

"As I have said, the only mercy of serious burns, is that you can't really feel them." he flipped the cover shut on one of his bags and tied the strings that held it closed.

"How long will it be before sunny heals?" asked Clay.

Pallor shrugged.

"Burns take a long time. I would guess sometime around three to four months, but it all depends on how good of care the patient is given."

Pallor moved past Clay to check on Glory and Starflight. He sort of had a way of making everyone move from before him, everyone was quick to move out of his path. Pallor checked glory, then looked at Deathbringer.

"Any problems with your shoulder?" he asked. The nightwing assassin shook his head.

"No. it still hurts pretty bad, but it's getting better."

Pallor nodded and turned back to check on Straflight.

"You did a fine job of patching yourself up deathbringer. It's a good thing these dragonets had you there to help them while Clay was gone."

Clay looked at the sandwing medic in surprise. He didn't say it out loud, but he thought that was the first time in two days that Pallor had used any of their names. It reminded him, eerily, of how Scarlet only referred to them by their species names.

Pallor felt starflights forehead, and his face took on a worried expression.

"Both of your friends are no longer comatose. I have allowed them to rest, but it may be time to wake the nightwing."

"You're going to wake Starflight?" asked clay. Pallor stood for a moment, looking unsure.

"Maybe. I think we should. He's sick, and running a fever. I'd let him sleep, but he needs to drink something, I can tell that he is very dehydrated."

"What about Glory?" asked sunny, "can you wake her too?"

Pallor looked over at the sleeping rainwing and shook his head.

"No. i think it would be best to let queen glory wake up on her own. I want her to get as much rest as possible, and put as little stress on her as we can. Head injuries are very sensitive, and the last thing I want to do is shock her into consciousness."

Pallor went over to his canvas bags, pulled out a small black pouch and rooted around inside. After a few seconds, he retrieved what looked like a small bundle of dried grass. Pallor took a quarter of the bundle, wrapped it around itself like a rope, and broke the strands of grass.

He then walked back to Starflight and gently pressed the bundle to the sleeping nightwings nose.

Everyone leaned in, trying to see a reaction. For several moments, nothing happened. Then Starflight moaned. He shifted, and weakly pawed at the pallors talon, pushing away the grass that irritated his nose. Pallor sat back, looking satisfied.

"There. He's waking up."

Everyone crowded around, holding their breath. Starflight groaned and shifted. After a minute he slowly opened his eyes.

The bandage normally covering starflights eyes had never been replaced. Now the discolored pupils were wide and unfocused as he blinked into consciousness.

"Starflight?" Asked Sunny, "can you hear me?"

Starflight slowly lifted his head and looked in her direction. His sightless eyes stared past her, at the wall behind.

"Sunny?" He whispered, "are you okay?"

Sunny's face broke into a tearful smile.

"Yes Starflight, I'm okay. I'm so glad you're awake, I was so worried."

"Where are the others?" Asked Starflight. He suddenly became worried, looking around in alarm.

"Wait, where are the others? Are they okay?" his speech was slurred, unclear and panicked.

"We're here," Said Tsunami, "right beside you. Me, Clay and Glory are right here, although, Glory's still unconscious."

Starflight swiveled to face the sound of her voice.

"Tsunami?"

"Yes, it's me, I'm okay." she said. Starflight let out a huge breath and slumped. He brought a talon to his forehead, feeling the remains of the bruise Scarlets knife handle had left behind. He groaned, and shifted to touch the bandage wrapped around his abdomen. After a few quiet moments of inspecting himself, Starflight looked back up at them.

"What about … Fatespeaker? Is she …?"

"I'm sorry Starflight." said Tsunami, "She's gone."

Starflight slowly lowered his head back to the cot. He took several deep breaths, and covered his eyes.

"What happened?" He whispered.

"We escaped." Said Sunny, "we came back to the rainforest. You've been asleep for days."

"Yes, and in the meantime I haven't gotten you to drink anything." Said Pallor, "which has led to some dehydration. How do you feel?"

Starflight rubbed his eyes with the back of his talons.

"I feel sick." he whispered, "I think I'm going to throw up."

Pallor reached over and felt his forehead.

"you're running a fever. I'll go get some water, that will help."

The sandwing medic excused himself, leaving them in privacy.

When he had gone, everyone stood in somewhat awkward silence. Starflight laid on his cot, still taking in what he had heard. After several moments, he looked back up.

"Is Clay okay too? What did Scarlet do to him?"

"Nothing," said Clay, making Starflight jump. "She seperated me, and did absolutely nothing."

"Yeah, don't worry, he's fine." said tsunami.

Starflight looked a little confused.

"Why would she do that?" he murmured, "was she planning something? Or was it just to torment Clay?"

"It doesn't matter." said Tsunami, "it's over now. We're all safe, and we'll never have to worry about Scarlet again."

Starflight sighed.

"All safe, except Fatespeaker and Deathbringer." he said.

"Not true," said Deathbringer, startling Starflight yet again, "I'm right over here, alive and on the mend."

"You're alive?" asked Starflight, as if he didn't believe it, "I thought you were dead."

"So did I for a few minutes there. I was extremely lucky." said Deathbringer.

Starflight nodded, returning back to his original resting position.

"So it's just Fatespeaker." he said, "everyones okay, except for her."

There was a moment of silence, as everyone tried to think of what to say. Clay wished that he could say something that would make starflight feel better, but what should he say? Fatespeaker and Starflight had been very close, he knew her better than clay ever would. So what was he supposed to say to someone who had lost somebody so close to them?

In the end, it was Sunny who said something.

"I'm sorry Starflight. We all know how important she was to you, and we all know how much this is going to affect you. I miss her too, she was a good friend of mine as well. But, we will be here for you Starflight. You've still got us."

Starflight slowly nodded, looking in the direction of the floor.

"Yes." he murmured, "at least I still have you guys. Thanks, Sunny."

Clay smiled at sunny, grateful for her words. Tsunami put a reassuring talon on Starflights shoulder. She wasn't normally one to encourage others, but she could see starflight needed some encouragement right now. Starflight looked in her direction, and gave a small smile.

"Thanks." he murmured.

Clay turned, and saw Pallor standing in the doorway. The sandwing medic motioned for clay to follow him, outside. Clay looked back at starflight and the others, then trotted to the doorway. He stepped outside, where Pallor was waiting for him on the boardwalk.

"What's wrong?" asked Clay.

"Nothing is necessarily wrong," said Pallor, "but I wanted to let you know something."

"What?" asked clay. Pallor held up his talons as he spoke.

"From what I understand, your friend Starflight was knocked out with a knife handle. I don't think there was any serious damage done, but I may be wrong. I need you to keep an eye on him, and tell me if he shows any signs of … being different."

"Different?" asked Clay, "what do you mean?"

"Well, for example, if he acts confused, or forgets things, or if his personality is not the same. Look out for things like that. I've seen many, many injuries over my career, especially over the past twenty years. I've seen this kind of injury a hundred times, maybe more. Sometimes the patients recover fully, sometimes they're never the same. It all depends on the situations and variables."

Clay felt more worry building in his chest. He hadn't that it would have been possible to be more worried, but here he was.

"What … how likely is that to happen?" he asked.

Pallor shrugged.

"I think he'll be okay, if he can fight off the infection. He woke up easily, and has been very responsive, so I think he'll be alright. But it never hurts to be catiouse, so keep an eye on him. Okay?"

Clay nodded.

"Sure, i can do that."

Pallor smiled.

"Good, good. That's all I had to say, now go on back to your friends."

Clay nodded, and turned back to the infirmary. He almost wished Pallor hadn't said any of that. It was just another reminder that, even with starflight awake and the others getting better, they weren't out of the woods yet.

* * *

**I'm a little worried about haveing these characters be, well, out of character, like with tsunami giving reassuring nudges. That dosent seem like her. But then again, after what they've been through, I also feel like there would be some slight changes. I don't really know, tell me what you think about it.  
**

**Also, I have a request of everybody who reads this:**

**Can somebody tell me how I can tell how many views this story has? I know I have a dedicated few, but I want to know how many people are actually reading. If you can't help me, then can you please leave a review? Just something simple, it dosent have to be drawn out, just something as simple as saying "me", like raising your hand. If y'all could do that, I would appreciate it very much. Thanks!**

**Okay, on to the reply's. Tell me if you like this better or if I should put them at the top again. I'd hate to break the mood of the chapter by having the reply's here. But if that's not a problem, let me know.**

* * *

-**cricketsundew: thanks for reveiwing****, the support means a lot**

-**queenglorythefirst: I don't intend to destroy sunny, but she is going to be a little different after what she's been through. I want her to be hopeful, but also be aware of just how easily things can go wrong. If that makes sense.**

**-donhp: I liked having thorn there. It's just hard to juggle so many characters. If it wasn't, I would have more characters here, like kinkajou. Also, I think it's realistic that while thorn wants to be with sunny, she has to take care of her kingdom too. I guess I'm trying to be realistic about the magic, and I think the way tui had anemones powers known by everyone was not very thought out. It would be very dangerous to let everyone know that the heir held that power.**

**-blackberryavar: I have worked on my grammar, and have capitalized all the names. I'm glad you are picking up on sunnys nerve damage. I'm not very knowledgeable about medical conditions, but I know that the worst burns are the ones you can't feel. I figured that you would be able to feel something, maybe not to the extent you should, but something nonetheless. **

**-dragon349295: I capalized the names, hows it look? Also, while pallor doesn't understand viruses, germs or biological ailments, he does understand that stab wounds, improperly cleaned, leads to infections. He's been a medic for a long time, through a whole world war, so while he dosent understand germs, he has learned from experience, and what he has seen. Remember, a long long time ago, people understood infections, even if they didn't treat them correctly. That's the reason why amputation was the most popular form of surgery to deal with gangrene. **

**-sunblaze: welcome! I love new faces! Thank you for your encouragement, and thank you for persevering through thirteen chapters before bed. It means a lot to me to hear your thoughts.**

**-icedragon07: huh? Is that a doom reference? I've never played doom, but I think that's a doom reference. Right? And who are you talking about ... scarlet? If you are, then I guess ... yeah, she did. She really ... really did.**


	15. Chapter15

**Okay, I'm back. It has been a long, hard, tiring battle to make this chapter, but here it is. I'm sorry, this chapter is not very good, in my opinion. It feels rushed, and choppy, I don't like how it sounds. But, it's the best I can do right now, and after sitting here and working on it for several days, I don't think it will get any better. I may come back and edit it later, when my mind is fresh. (When my mind is fresh. Does that even make sense? I don't know, I've spent too long starring at a screen today, and now my brain is mush.)**

**This chapter is mostly setting the stage for the next two chapters, which will be the ending. Cricketsundew asked about that, and the answer is here. After this, there are two more chapters. The next chapter is going to be a huge struggle as well, but after that, the last chapter is already written. Anyway, here's chapter fifteen.**

* * *

Pallor didn't live in the infirmary with the dragonets. Instead, he had temporarily taken up residence in a hut meant for visitors, located over by the nursery. As a result, the dragonets were left in privacy every night, but he could be easily reached in case of an emergency.

Deathbringer had been the only one awake when pallor showed up the next morning. He was carrying a bucket of clean water, and was surprised to see queen thorn follow him through the door.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me," Thorn was saying, apparently continuing a conversation the two had been having, "I would have liked to have been here when you cut that thing off her talon-"

"Your Majesty, I know you are worried about her, and I'm aware that you want to be here with her, but you were very busy yesterday. I couldn't wait for you, and I knew she would be alright."

Their talking had caused the others to stir, with Tsunami waking up first, quickly followed by Clay and Sunny. Deathbringer watched as Pallor set down the bucket and several of his canvas bags, before moving over to gently shake Starflight awake. Thorn sighed, and headed over to Sunny.

"I would have made time." she said, "my daughter is more important than some silly territory disputes."

Pallor didn't respond. He appeared to have set aside whatever she was saying, tuning out his queen as he began taking care of starflight. He was very good at focusing on one task and setting aside everything else.

Thorn shook her head as he set to work, then turned to Sunny.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

Sunny sat up, gingerly holding her injured arm.

"Im okay," she said, and then immediately followed up with, "you're not mad at Pallor, are you?"

Thorn blinked, as if in confusion for a second, then shook her head once more.

"No, no of course not. I'm just a little upset that he didn't tell me when he was going to cut off the bracelet. I wanted to be here with you, to make sure you were okay."

"Oh," said Sunny, "well, it's okay, I'm alright. You don't need to worry."

Thorn gave her a small smile, and wrapped a wing around her.

"It's my job to worry, Sunny, I'm a mother. You wouldn't believe how stressful this last week has been for me, running a kingdom and thinking about you none stop. Look, I think my scales are turning grey with anxiety."

Dethbringer couldn't help himself but to smile as thorn held up her arm and gestured to her sandy yellow scales. He could see the relief in her posture, like seeing sunny had lifted a weight off her mind as she had stepped through the door.

Deathbringer knew how she felt. His eyes turned to glory, still motionless on the cot beside him. Her scales were still pale, except for the big, ugly purple bruise on the side of her head. The swelling had gone down significantly, but the area around the crack in her skull was still inflamed and discolored. Deathbringer couldn't help but to worry, nonstop, about glorys condition. And unfortunately for him, unlike Thorn who could talk to Sunny and know she would be okay, Deathbringer could only watch Glory, and hope for the best.

"Is there any way I can help?" asked Clay, who had gotten up and was standing near pallor. The sandwing medic looked up at him, then over at the bucket of water he had brought. Pallor grabbed the bucket, soaked a clean rag in the water, then offered the rest of it to Starflight to drink.

"When he's done with this, go refill the bucket." he said.

Tsunami sat up on her cot.

"I can help too." she said.

Pallor looked over at her and shook his head.

"No, you stay put. Your ribs need to heal, and it's not good for you to be up and about while on the mend."

Tsunami looked a little disappointed, but she layed back down. The night before, Pallor had applied some yellow paste to the patches where her scales were missing, and now the injuries had taken on a pinkish color, a stark contrast from the previous scabby brown. Pallor had said it would reduce the scarring, and help the damaged areas recover.

Starflight drank all the water in no time, and clay left with the bucket. Deathbringer watched Pallor work, removing the bandage to once again clean the stab wound in Starflights' side.

Deathbringer wasn't a doctor, but he knew enough about healing to recognize a bad infection when he saw one. The injury was swollen and oozing, and despite how careful Pallor was, cleaning it was very painful for Starflight. Deathbringer tried to remember how the injury had looked the day before, he wasn't sure if it had gotten any better. In fact, it may have gotten worse. Starflights scales were also a few shades lighter than they had been the day before, giving him a sickly grey appearance. That was not a good sign, for sure. Deathbringer didn't say anything out loud, because he didn't want to worry the others, but he was afraid that starflight might not have been recovering, but was slowly starting to go down hill.

Deathbringer shook his head. What was he thinking? Starflight would be okay, pallor was doing his best for him. He would pull through, it was just going to take some time.

They all looked at the doorway as Grandeur walked in. The old rainwing looked them over, before asking,

"How is everyone?"

The dragonets looked at each other, somewhat unsure of how to answer.

"We're… okay, I guess." said Tsunami.

Grandeur nodded.

"Good, good. I promised Kinkajou that I would ask about glory, any progress?"

"She's getting better," said Sunny, "pallor said she might wake up soon."

"Let's hope so." said Grandeur, "we need her back, soon. This whole kingdom is on it's toes, I'm afraid of what might happen if she doesn't wake up in the next few days."

"What do you mean?" asked Tsunami.

"Everyone's nervous. Tense. Glory is very well loved by the rainwings, and not the most popular with the nightwings. If she doesn't pull through, I'm afraid of some … unrest."

"She will pull through." said Sunny, "I'm certain she will."

"I hope you're right." said Grandeur.

"How bad is it?" asked Tsunami, "you're not having any trouble, are you?"

Grandeur shook her head.

"No, not really. But I can't help the feeling of the calm before the storm. It's the uncertainty that worries me, I'm not sure what will happen, or when, if anything at all. I just have to try and counter problems as they arise. Which is part of the reason I am here."

She looked over at Deathbringer.

"Deathbringer, are you in good enough shape to walk?" she asked. Deathbringer stood and flexed his injured shoulder experimentally.

"Yeah, I think I can ." he said

"Would you do me a huge favor?" she asked, "I need you to go talk to the nightwings. Things are pretty tense over there, they have no idea what's going on. Im afraid that rumors may be causing a lot of worry, and the last thing we need is a tribe of anxious nightwings causing trouble."

Deathbringer took a step back.

"You want me to go talk to them?" he asked, "but, I'm not necessarily their favorite nightwing."

"They would rather listen to a nightwing than a rainwing who isnt even their queen." she said, "I highly doubt they would rather listen to me instead of you."

"But what am i supposed to say?" he asked, "what do i tell them?"

"You don't have to say much," said Grandeur, "you just need to dispel the rumors. Tell them what's going on, but keep it simple. Tell them that Glory is injured, but is recovering. That's all you have to really say."

Deathbringer was still unsure. Normally, he wouldn't have minded going to address the nightwing tribe, but to be alone and injured? That unnerved him.

"How do i talk to them?" he asked, "do i gather the whole tribe?"

Grandeur shook her head.

"No, no need for that. Just go to the village and tell everyone there. They'll spread the word to the rest of the tribe. You don't need to make a speech, just a quick oration will do. Please Deathbringer, we need your help."

Deathbringer sighed. He really didn't want to face his tribe, alone nonetheless. But he knew that it was necessary to keep the peace.

"I'll see what I can do." he said.

* * *

Deathbringer was very nervous as he walked into the nightwing village. He didn't know what to expect, or say, or do. How was he supposed to talk to the nightwings? Was he supposed to call them together, announce a meeting in the village square? It was obvious to him that he wasn't necessarily their favorite dragon, more than one viewed him as a trader to his species.

The nightwings were busy. They were carrying out their daily chores, finding food, hauling water, and constructing huts. There was always a need for more huts, and it would be quite a while until enough were built to house the whole tribe. They were so busy, that at first deathbringer thought he may be able to slip in unnoticed. However, when he came past the first several huts, nightwings began to notice him, and stopped their work. Within several minutes, all work had ground to a halt, and all eyes were on deathbringer. There was a quiet murmuring as the nightwings spoke to each other in low tones. Deathbringer swallowed nervously, unsure of how to address them. But he never got the chance.

"Hey deathbringer!" somebody yelled, "how's your girlfriend?"

There were several laughs, some snickering. Deathbringer had never felt so embarrassed.

"I heard she died last night," someone else yelled,

"no, she isn't dead yet, but i heard she's on her way out."

"That's not true!" deathbringer snapped, looking for the owner of the voice, "queen glory is alive and making a steady recovery."

The nightwings began to move towards him, leaving their tasks to get closer.

"Well what happened to our wonderful queen?" someone asked. Deathbringer located the speaker, a nightwing named cobalt because of an unusual color in his scales, "all I've gotten to hear was gossip from those dippy rainwings."

"The dragonets, including Glory, were attacked by queen scarlet and her helpers. Glory was injured before they escaped from her, and is currently unconscious."

"Huh, that was some fine work of protecting her, deathbringer." called a female voice to his left, "great job at bodyguarding."

"Is she dying?" asked someone else.

"No," said Deathbringer, "she is recovering, she will wake up shortly."

But it was if no one had heard him. Nervous, excited voices murmured to each other.

"What if she is dying?"

"What if she does die?"

"Who will rule us then?" "this may be our chance" "it's bad enough being ruled by a rainwing, but now we take orders from one who isnt even the queen."

"What if she does die?" asked cobalt, "what then?"

"She wont die," said Deathbringer.

"Anything can happen." said cobalt, "she could die, and then what? Who will take over? She's still an adolescent, she has no heirs."

"Does she have a sister?" someone asked,

"not that anyone knows of," somebody else replied.

"What about princess greatness?"

"Dont be stupid, she's worse than the rainwings. Haven't you seen how weak she is?"

"Hey, Deathbringer, why cant you take over?" someone asked.

Deathbringer stepped back in surprise.

"Me? Rule the rainforest? What are you talking about?"

"Well, you were the closest thing to a husband she had." said the voice, somewhere to his right, "so you're basically king, right?"

Deathbringer was shaking his head.

"No, no, stop a second. We were never married, I'm not king-"

"Close enough!" someone shouted.

"No, stop, listen to me!" deathbringer barked, "I don't want to rule the rainforest, and even if I did, the king cannot be the ruler, remember? Only queens can rule."

"Well why the heck not?" asked Cobalt, "who decided that the queen should be in charge? Why can't the king rule instead?"

"Because they can't." said Deathbringer, "it's always been that way."

"So what?" asked Cobalt, "who says we can't change? I would rather have a nightwing king than a rainwing queen. Besides, it's called a kingdom, right? And males are bigger and stronger than females, so why can't the king be in charge? What makes the queen better than the king?"

Deathbringer was starting to panic. This was going terribly wrong.

"I didn't come here to argue about the monarchy." he said, "I'm only trying to let you know what's going on, so there won't be any questions. I'm only trying to dispel the rumors. Queen glory IS still alive, and she IS getting better, and she WILL wake up soon, and I am NOT going to be king!"

The nightwings were all talking amongst themselves, hardly even listening to him. Deathbringer started looking to make his escape.

* * *

When he made it back to the infirmary, Grandeur was waiting for him by the door.

"So how did it go? Any trouble?"

Deathbringer breathed a huge sigh as he entered the infirmary. Pallor had refreshed everyone's bandages by now, and thorn had left for her kingdom.

"Terrible." he said, "Lots of trouble."

"Like what?" asked grandeur, following him inside. Deathbringer limped over to the cot beside glory, and layed down with a groan.

"They want me to be king, and take over for Glory."

"What?!" said Tsunami, "they can't - you can't do that."

"I know." said Deathbringer. "But they want me to replace Glory, if she dies. It's total madness over there."

"Oh dear." said Grandeur, "I knew that the nightwings were getting anxious, but I didn't realize it would be this bad."

"I just can't believe that they wanted me to be king." said Deathbringer, "I mean, aside from all the laws that say I can't be the ruler, the last I knew they didn't like me. A lot of them see me as a trader for helping the rainwings."

"It's because they are unhappy." said Grandeur. "They feel misrepresented, or unequally treated because they have a rainwing queen. And to be honest, I don't blame them. I wouldn't want to bow to a nightwing, it's perfectly understandable. But a house divided against itself will fall, and whether we like it or not, this kingdom is a divided house. And unless something happens, it will fall. Glory has been the glue keeping everything together, and I'm afraid that if she is out of the picture for too much longer, then we may have some trouble on our talons."

"So what do we do?" asked Sunny. She was standing by starflight, worry evident on her face. Grandeur sighed.

"At the moment, there isn't much we can do. Right now, we try to keep the peace and hope for the best. And hope that Glory wakes up soon."

* * *

**thank you for reading and staying with me. I'm really hoping the next chapter turns out better. **

**Last time I asked how to see what the number of views was on my story. I should have clarified, I'm stuck on mobile. Is there any way to check those stats while on the mobile version?**

**-donhp:I'm glad tsunami seems in character. Spoiler alert, but I intend the next chapter to be from her point of view.**

**-icedragon07: I thought so. I've never played doom, but I saw the funny alternative ending. Thanks for reading!**

**-cricketsundew: thanks for sticking with me. We are not far from the ending, two more to go. I'm really worried that by writing these extra chapters, showing the aftermath, that I may be loosing the sentiment that the earlier chapters held. But then again, I wanted to show the aftermath and a little of how the event affects the dragonets after they've escaped. I dunno, it's a very fine balance to keep.**

**-ishdragonx: welcome! Thanks for reading, not just this but my other story too! Thank you so much! Moving on, I guess I kind of agree with you, but when it comes to tsunami, I don't really think she would make jokes in a time like this. I dunno, that may just be me, but I picture her to loose some of her confident flare, and become a bit more quiet and unsure. I'm going to be showing her point of view, and trying to show what she has been thinking. I haven't done a good job of showing it, but tsunami has been blaming herself for things, just like clay. But at the same time, I have been portraying clay more often, so we don't get to see what she's thinking. I'm sorry, I'm blabbering on and on, I'll save it for the next chapter.**

**-queenglorythefirst: thanks again for reading everything I've posted. I only showed a tiny bit of sunny in this chapter, but I was trying to show her being a little more responsive, like she's slowly comeing around and adjusting to this new normal. We'll see about starflight and glory.**

**-blackberryavar: yes, this is sort of a wrap up chapter as well. The next two wshould hold a different feeling if I do it right, we'll see what the writers block does to me. I am actually realieved to have this chapter out of the way, even if it's not how I wanted it to turn out. Hopefully I can finish this story the way I want it to. It would be a shame to see it crash and burn on the finish line. Thank you for reading.**

**-dragon349295:I've started capitalizing names, but am I supposed to capitalize words like 'queen' and 'majesty'?**

**Thanks for reading.**

**-alpaca: there you are! I missed you, and was worried you wouldn't come back. How's things going with shadowWalker? Have you written anything yet? Let me know.**

**Alrighty, that wraps this one up. I'll take a brief two day break, and then get right to work on the next chapter. We're not far from done, just two more to go. I'll see you all then.**


	16. Chapter16

**What is this? A new chapter? Almost an entire freaking MONTH later?**

**So no, im not dead. I am, however, very tired now because i have been pushing hard to finish this chapter. Remember how i said the last one was hard, and this one would be eisier? Heh heh, yeah, i lied to myself. But, the next chapter is prewritten. I will release it somtime next week.**

**Short explenation: this chapter took forever because i suddenly became very busy with farmwork, coupled with a sudden shortage of reliable internet. I wrote when i could, which wasn't very often, and had to re write a few things.**

**I am not happy with this chapter either, but it's the best i got. I may come back and edit it later.**

**Also, i had some limited access to a pc, and so i looked up my profile. As it turns out, several folks sent me pm's, and i left them hanging. Let it be known, if you send me a pm, i will not be able to see it. Sorry, all part of using the mobile app.**

**Also, i got to see my traffic stats, and holy cow! There are people from all over reading this thing, i didn't realize so many folks were tooning in, from different countries even. Thats kinda scary to me, actually. I don't even have social media, so thats a pretty drastic step for me.**

**Also, let me know if parts appear to be missing in this chapter. I have terrible connection right now, so a few things may have glitched in the process of uploading.**

———————————————————————-

The next morning, Tsunami was determined to be awake before pallor arrived. She had always been an early riser, and in the past week or so, she hadn't been keeping her usual schedule. Tsunami reasoned that if life was ever going to return to normal, or as normal as it could, then she would have to return to her normal way of doing things.

Which was a challenge. Tsunami had always loved to get up and moving in the morning, to wake everyone else and get on with the day. She rarely, if ever, stayed in one spot for more than a minute at a time. She was always moving, trying to stay busy and accomplish things, to remain idle was to waste her time. Tsunami figured that this sense of ambition could be blamed on her upbringing. Living in a dark little cave for most of her life had made a very profound affect on how she had reacted when she finally saw the outside world. Ever since that first taste of freedom, she had never wanted to stop moving.

And so, it irritated her when Pallor insisted that she stayed on her cot. The sandwing medic would go about his business, and would keep Clay busy with running to get things or helping him with bandages. Tsunami wanted to help, but her offer was turned down.

She supposed that she couldn't blame Pallor. His job was to make sure she was healing well, and staying healthy. She understood that it was for the best that she remained laying on her cot, to allow her injured body to rest. So, she wasn't really frustrated with Pallor, but she just couldn't stand being forced to lay idle. The lack of motion or activity made her stiff and uncomfortable. But worst of all, it gave her more time to think. And Tsunami couldn't stop thinking about what had happened in the caves, or what might happen when her mother found out, or what would happen if glory didn't wake up, or if Starflight didn't get better.

All of her worries and fears, the 'what if?' scenarios kept circling through her head in a non-stop cycle of anxiety that was starting to wear on her nerves.

Tsunami rubbed her eyes with her talons and groaned softly. She just wanted this nightmare to be over already. They had escaped Scarlet, but the effects of her terrible work were still haunting them.

Pallor had started his work by checking over Glory, and making sure that her condition hadn't digressed at all since his last check up. He then moved to Deathbringer, removing the old bandage and cleaning the nightwing assassin's injury.

"Clay, more water," he said, "and then when you've gotten that, start setting out my jars of healing paste, where I can sort through them easily."

Clay grabbed the water bucket and ducked out the doorway. Pallor was dipping from the bucket of clean water he had, vigorously scrubbing the area around Deathbringer's injury. Deathbringer grunted, and flinched, but remained quiet as Pallor scrubbed the wound. It took a few minutes, then the sandwing medic stepped back, ringing the water out of the cloth.

"How does it look?" asked Deathbringer. Pallor shrugged, dropping the wet cloth and picking up a dry one, he began to dry the area.

"Looks fine to me. No sign of infection, although i think all that walking yesterday irritated it. You need to take it easy for a while."

"So, stay in bed?"

Pallor shook his head.

"No, you need to exercise," he looked over at Tsunami, "that includes you too, but you need to be careful. Don't overdo it, or you'll start going backward."

Tsunami nodded, and Pallor went back to looking at his work. He finished drying up the moisture, then picked up a fresh bandage with a large cloth pad. "I'm going to give you a looser bandage, which will allow you to move more freely, and let you stretch easily. But, keep an eye on it, the pad needs to stay over the injury, got it?"

"Yeah, got it." said Deathbring, as Pallor began to loop the bandage over his shoulder joint.

There was a small commotion outside the door, and a few seconds later Grandeur pushed her way past the four rainwing guards. Everyone stopped and looked at her as she quickly scanned the interior, eye's first landing on Glory, then stopping on Deathbringer.

"Grandeur, is something wrong?" asked Tsunami, straight to the point. The old rainwing heaved a frustrated sigh.

"I'm afraid so. I would have sent a messenger, but we all know how well they can keep secrets."

"Well what is it? Whats wrong?" asked Deathbringer

"It's the nightwings. They want to talk, and they demanded that you be there."

Deathbringer looked from her to the other dragonets, to Glory. An anxious look passed over his face as he took in her still sleeping form."

"Is there going to be trouble?" he asked, "are they looking for a fight?"

Grandure shook her head.

"No, they just want to talk, and clear some things up. Although, if not handled right, this could get messy."

Deathbringer groaned and rubbed his forehead.

"Oh great." he muttered.

Pallor tightened the new bandage and gave the ends and experimental tug. Satisfied, he stepped back and nodded to Deathbringer.

"That'll hold ya." he said, "if anything starts hurting, give me a call."

Deathbringer nodded gratefully at the sandwing medic. He rolled his shoulders experimentally, and looked to Grandeur.

"Alright." he said, "let's go see what they want."

**———————————————————————-**

Starflight wasn't doing very good. The blind nightwing was burning up with fever, and his

infection looked worse. Pallor was trying his best, but Tsunami was worried nonetheless.

She lay on the floor, beside Sunny's cot, watching as Pallor worked with Starflight. The sandwing medic sent Clay for more water, and set to cleaning the infected area again, as well as applying a sauve that was supposed to help the injury heal. This process was very painful for Starflight, who moaned in agony as Pallor tried to clean the festering wounds.

Tsunami couldn't stand to see him in so much pain. She had to look away from him, and instead decided to study the floor boards between her talons.

She remembered when they had first found Starflight, unconscious in the cave. And also Fatespeaker, and the horrible feeling of realizing that she was dead. She remembered the fear of what may have happened to Sunny, and she also remembered the relief she had felt when Scarlet was killed, when she realized that they were safe, and that the ordeal was all over.

But it wasn't over. Now Starflight was suffering from a terrible injury, and Glory was still asleep. She had no idea if Starflight would survive the night, or if Glory would ever wake up again. Now, looking back, Tsunami wished she had done things differently. She wished she could have been stronger, and braver, she wished she had done more to stand up to Scarlet. She wished she hadn't given up.

Tsunami gritted her teeth at the memory of Scarlet, dragging the others away. If she had only known that would have been the last time she had seen Fatespeaker alive, and knew what Scarlet had planned to do, she would have fought. At least, that's what Tsunami tried telling herself. But Tsunami had known what was going to happen when Scarlet drug them away. She didn't know what specific things would happen, but she had known the terrible danger the others were in, she knew Scarlet was going to do something terrible.

But she hadn't done anything about it. She had lain there, and watched as Scarlet drug them away. There was no way that Tsunami could have beaten them. She knew how hopless it would have been. And she also remembered how badly beaten she had been, how her whole body had ached, how her lungs burned with each breath. But Tsunami still felt guilty for not trying to do anything, all of those details were just excuses, invalid reasons for why she had just given up and let Scarlet take the others. She had failed the others. She had let them down, when they had needed her most, and they were paying the price.

"This is all my fault." Tsunami muttered. She stared absently at the floor, then glanced up when she heard Sunny groan.

"Oh no," said Sunny, "not you too."

Tsunami was confused.

"What? What do you mean?"

"First it was Clay blaming himself for all of this. Don't tell me you're doing the same thing."

Tsunami looked back at the floor.

"It's true though. It's obvious, I gave up when I should have kept fighting. I let you be taken away."

Sunny gave a huge, longsuffering sigh.

"Tsunami, dont say that. It's not true, you didn't give up. There was just litterally nothing you could do. And you saw that. You were smart enough to see how useless it would have been to fight Scarlet. You used common sense."

Tsunami felt a little stung by those words. Was Sunny saying she had been stupid to fight for them? Like that time she had attacked the skywing, back when they were looking for the kingdom of the sea?

But she shook her head. She was jumping to concusions. Sunny wasn't rebuking her decision to fight, rather, she was defending Tsunamis decision to not fight. Which was almost worse. It felt like she was trying to make Tsunami feel better about giving up.

"Well, my 'common sense' got Fatespeaker killed." she said, "and it let you get burned, and Starflight stabbed."

Sunny shook her head.

"You're doing exactly what Clay is doing." she said, "he thinks it was his actions that hurt us, and that he didn't try hard enough to save us."

"Well, Clay is wrong about himself. He is the only reason we escaped at all, he did nothing wrong. I, on the other hand, just laid there and let Scarlet take you, Starflight, and Fatespeaker. And because of that, you're hurt, Starflight's sick, and Fatespeaker is dead. It's my fault that that happened."

"But Tsunami, there was nothing you could have done." said Sunny. It did occur to Tsunami that Sunny was really digging in her heels, and was determined to win this argument. "What do you think you could have done? What could you have possibly done to stop Scarlet? You dont actually believe you could have stopped her, right?"

"I could have fought." said Tsunami, "I could have stood in her way, I could have tried to make it difficult for her. I might have been able to buy enough time for Clay to get there."

"Tsunami," said Sunny, in a voice that sounded like she was pleading with her, "she would have killed you. She would have killed you, and drug us away to our fates anyway."

"Maybe." said Tsunami, "maybe she would have, and maybe that would have given us more time. Maybe clay could have gotten there in time to save Fatespeaker if I had tried to fight."

"No." said Sunny, in a very uncharacteristically firm voice, "You're wrong Tsunami. Scarlet would have killed you, and then killed us. You wouldn't have saved anyone. In fact, if you had died right there, then Clay would have been all alone, and he may have not been able to free us by himself. But even if he could have, you wouldn't have saved Fatespeaker. Tsunami, all I can say is that I am so grateful that you didn't fight, for just that one time. If you did, then we would have lost both you AND Fatespeaker. Do you understand?"

Tsunami was a little taken aback by Sunny's monologue . The little sandwing was giving her a firm look, one that made her lose the will to argue. Tsunami grew uncomfortable, and looked away from her eyes.

"Yeah, sure, I get it." she said. But she still wasn't convinced

**——————————————————————-**

A while later, Tsunami and Clay went for a stroll down the boardwalk. She needed to stretch her legs, and Clay was still full of nervous energy. They made low conversation as they walked, aware of the many rainwing eyes following them. Tsunami didn't want the nosy forest dragons to overhear something that may be taken wrong, or blown out of proportion. They were having enough trouble with that already

"What do you think the nightwings want?" Asked Clay.

Tsunami shrugged.

"I don't know. I'd guess that they want to have a say in whatever happens next. Whatever that may look like."

"Do you think there's going to be trouble?" He asked, "what if Glory doesn't wake up?"

"She will wake up." Said tsunami, "as for trouble … I don't know. This whole kingdom is worried. Glory is kind of a big deal around here. We aren't the only ones concerned for her well being."

"I just wish everyone would calm down." Said Clay, "I'm already worried enough about Glory, and Starflight, and you and Sunny. I don't want to worry about a whole kingdom as well.

"Theres a lot to be worried about right now." said Tsunami, "Glory and Starflights health, the aftermath of this incident, an entire tribe of anxious nightwings." _my mother finding out about this catastrophe._ "We just have to do our best. We'll get through it,

Clay nodded. They walked in silence for a bit, rounding a bend in the boardwalk and ducking through some low hanging vines. They eventually came to a set of stairs, at which point Tsunami stopped at the base and looked up towards the top.

"Wanna turn around?" asked Clay.

Tsunami sighed and shook her head.

"No. I want to go a little farther. Would you mind helping me up the steps?"

Clay looked at the mossy planks with hesitation, then back to her.

"Are you sure? Pallor said that you needed to take it easy."

"I am taking it easy." said Tsunami, "that's why I'm asking for your help. And it really hurts my pride to have to ask you, so don't make me ask twice."

Clay sighed, and offered his shoulder to lean on.

"Alright, fine, but when we get up there, you're going to take a break."

"Yes mother," said Tsunami, "whatever you say."

They started up the stairs. It was hard work for Tsunami's weakened condition, and each step made her ribs flare in pain. But, she grit her teeth and forced herself to keep climbing.

It felt like an eternity before they reached the top, and when they did, Tsunami collapsed on the boardwalk, breathing hard and wincing. Each breath was painful, and she wondered if it had really been worth climbing those stairs.

"You okay?" asked Clay. Tsunami nodded, but didn't say anything. Clay looked around the trees nearby, waiting for her to catch her breath. "We should head back to the infirmary soon," he said, "sunny needs to take a walk too. She can't spend all day watching Glory and Starflight."

Tsunami nodded, but still didn't respond.

They had worked out a system, where someone remained in the infirmary at all times to keep an eye on Glory and Starflight. After all, Pallor couldn't spend all day in the little building, he had other things to attend to, despite being in the rainforest solely for the purpose of taking care of the dragonets. He had to make short trips to the sand kingdom for more supplies, and had to keep Queen Thorn up to date on what was happening. Normally, a messenger would have been used for this purpose, but for this incident, everyone wanted to keep the information contained for as long as possible, at least until Glory was awake and able to handle the uproar that was sure to ensue when the whole world found out what had happened to the most famous dragons on the planet. If word spread of what condition Glory was in right now, some very ugly politics could take place between the kingdoms, most noticeably in the rainforest.

Sunny always volunteered to keep watch, so the others could go outside and stretch. Tsunami worried about the little sandwings health. She appeared to be healing fine, but the worry for her friends was obviously weighing on the Sunnys mind. She needed something to distract her, but she didn't want to leave her friends, and so she stayed in the infirmary.

"I hope Starflight will be okay." said Clay, breaking Tsunami from her thoughts. "I tried to talk to him earlier, but he just wanted to sleep. He said he felt really sick."

"He'll be alright," said Tsunami, "it's normal to feel sick and tired. Big infections can really take it out of you, so he'll be like that for a while as he slowly gets better."

"But is he getting better?" asked Clay, looking away at the tree's again, "I really hope he is, but I think he looked worse this morning than he did last night."

Tsunami felt a cold shiver go down her spine. She had been thinking the same thing, but had never said it out loud for fear of scaring the others. The possibility of what their observations could mean, if starflight were to die … she really didn't want to think about it. It set her back into the thought of how this could have been avoided, if she had only had the strength to not give up and let Scarlet take him.

Tsunami shook her head and stood. Her legs were a little shaky, and the movement caused her ribs to flare up again.

"Let's go back." she said, "I don't feel like walking any farther."

Going back down the stairs was a little faster, but not necessarily easier. About three quarters of the way down, Tsunami slipped on the wet moss, and with a yelp of dismay, tumbled down the last several stairs.

"Tsunami! Are you okay?" asked Clay, rushing down the stairs towards her.

"I'm fine," she growled, trying to breathe despite her burning ribs.

Clay jumped off the last step and landed beside her. He gently pulled her to her feet, letting her lean on him again.

"I'm sorry, you just slipped right right away from me." he said.

Tsunami waved him away.

"It's okay, I'm fine. Just give me a minute."

"Are you sure you're fine?"

"Yes. Now stop asking."

Clay watched her for a minute, then looked away at the tree tops. A tiny smirk quirked on his face.

"Well then, no more walks for you, miss clumsy." he said.

"Watch it." said tsunami, "I'll push you off the boardwalk."

Clay chuckled.

"Yep, you're okay." he said

"Hey! Clay, tsunami! Come quick!"

Tsunami looked up to see Sunny limping towards them, awkwardly running as fast as she could on only three legs.

"What is it?" asked Tsunami, instantly worried of what may have happened. Was Starflight alright? Were the nightwings mobilizing themselves? Was her mother here?

Sunny staggered up to them and stopped to catch her breath. In her weakened state, the run had taken a lot out of the little sandwing. She held her burned talon protectively close to her chest, and a grimace on her face showed how painful the trip had been.

"What's wrong Sunny?" asked Clay, still beside Tsunami, "what's happening? Are you alright?"

Sunny looked up at them, still panting, and said,

"It's Glory! She's awake, she just woke up, come quick!"

———————————————————————

When they got there, Glory was sitting up on her cot. She was a mixture of blues, reds and greens, each color swirling and shifting slowly across her scales. She was looking around the room, eyes narrowed in confusion, like she didn't know where she was.

Tsunami was the last one into the infirmary, the run across the boardwalks left her panting for breath. Her ribs burned from the exertion, which in turn made breathing painful, and left her feeling dizzy and light headed for a few minutes.

Sunny was the first to reach glory, limping over to her and pulling herself up onto the cot beside the rainwing, putting them at the same eye level.

"Sorry for running off the moment you woke up. I brought Clay and Tsunami," she said, lying down on the cot, "we've all been so worried for you, and Deathbringer wouldn't leave your side, how do you feel?"

Glory looked from Clay and Tsunami, to Starflight, to Sunny. She said nothing, but her eyes were owlishly wide, taking in her surroundings. There were several awkward moments of silence as Glory simply stared at them, but said nothing.

"Glory?" asked Sunny, "are you … okay?"

Tsunami felt her heart beat speed up as worry began to creep into her mind.

"Clay," she said, "go get Pallor."

Clay was gone in a flash. As he ran out the door, Tsunami saw the four rainwing guards peeking inside the infirmary.

"What are you looking at?!" Tsunami barked, "back to your posts!"

The rainwings instantly snapped to attention, out of the doorway. Tsunami huffed, and turned back to the others.

Starflight had been startled awake at her loud tone, and now he was looking in her direction.

"Whats going on?" he murmured, "is everyone okay?"

Tsunami looked from him to Glory, who was now studying the colors shifting through her scales in interest.

"Don't worry Starflight, everyones okay." she said.

Sunny looked worried as she leaned towards Glory, who appeared to be experimenting with the different colors that were fading through her talons.

"Glory, can you hear me?" she asked.

Glory looked at her, blinked several times, and then appeared to loose interest. She went back to studying her scales. Sunny looked over at Tsunami, who had moved closer to them, leaning on a cot across the isle. "Somthings wrong." said Sunny, "unless … is it normal for this to happen? When you just wake up?"

Tsunami could only raise her shoulders in bewilderment.

"I dont know." she said, "but im sure everything will be okay."

That was a lie. Both she and sunny knew it. But they chose not to say anything more until pallor arrived.

When the sandwing medic arrived, an air of urgency fell upon the infirmary. Tsunami anxiously whatched out the windows, looking for signs of eavesdropping rainwings. She couldn't stop running scenarios through her head. If some rainwing were to spread rumors about glorys condition … things could get ugly, fast.

Pallor didn't need long to reach a conclusion.

"It's because of the head injury." he said, "she suffered a serious blow to the brain. Frankly, she's lucky to have her gross motor skills intact. It could have been much worse."

"But will she get better?" asked Sunny, fear written on her face. Pallar sighed.

"It's hard to say."

"But will she?"

Pallor rubbed his face.

"Do you want an honest answer?" he asked. Tsunami did not like the tone of his voice, or the way he worded that question. It made her heart freeze.

"Yes," said Sunny, "of course i do."

Pallor sighed.

"It's not likely." he said. "Maybe, as the swelling goes down, she may get better, but it's not at all likely. Ive seen these injuries before, many, many times. Im afraid that she is stuck like this. There is nothing i can do."

There was a few moments of silence as that information sunk in.

"So … thats it?" asked Tsunami, "she's stuck like this? For … forever?"

Pallor shrugged, helplessly.

"I am afraid so." he said, "im very sorry, but i cannot do anything to change that."

Tsunami looked over at Glory, who was experimenting with standing up. The rainwing queen appeared to need all of her concentration to stay upright as she slipped off the cot and steadied herself. It hurt Tsunami, and scared her, to see her friend this way. It was as if Glory was a stranger now. A dragon that Tsunami had never met, had never known.

"What do we do now?" asked clay, looking at Tsunami. She wished he wouldn't look at her, like she was in charge. The last thing tsunami wanted to be right now, was the leader.

"I dont know, Clay. Glory is … well, she can't rule the kingdom like this. Someone needs to go tell Grandure and Deathbringer, in a way that dosent set off chaos."

"Good luck with that," said Pallor. "I imagine there will be a little unrest when everyone finds out.

Tsunami shot a glare at the sandwing medic.

"Thank you very much for the encouragement." she snapped, "it's not like I didn't know that.

Pallor shrugged.

"Just tellen' it like it is." he said.

"Theres got to be some way to get Glory back." said Sunny, "there has to be something we can do."

Tsunami sighed.

"Sunny, i know how you feel. But there's nothing we can do, she is stuck like this."

"Dont say that!" said sunny, "you heard pallor, theres still a chance she will get better. You need to looking on the bad side all the time, it only makes it worse. Glory still has a chance."

Tsunami met Sunnys eyes, and was surprised to see a firmness there that she hadn't seen before, possibly over looked in the past. It made her a little uncomfortable, so she looked away.

"I agee with Sunny." said Clay, "there has to be somthing we can do." he was standing by glory, watching her and hoping for a change in her odd behavior. There was a moment of silence as they all whatched Glory, who was ignoring them and instead gazing in wonder att the rainforest beyond the window.

After several minutes, Clay said, "hey, wait a minute, ive got an idea!"

Tsunami, sunny and Pallor looked at him as he turned away from Glory. He suddenly appeared excited at whatever idea he had come up with. "I remember, this one time, Starflight was reading a book to us, and one of the characters was knocked out. When they woke up, they were acting really funny, and were saying strange things, until they got hit on the head again, and then they returned to normal. What if-"

"NO!" everyone yelled in unison, "if you did that, you'd very likely kill her." said Pallor.

Clays face fell.

"Oh. okay, sorry, i guess."

Tsunami sighed.

"Theres nothing to be sorry for. You were just trying to help. Even if it was a bad idea."

Clay ducked his head in embarrassment.

"Yeah, i guess. But still," he said, looking up to meet her eyes, "there has to be something we can do, right? For both Starflight and Glory."

Tsunami looked at him, then sunny, who was also looking at her.

She knew what they were thinking. Was it really worth causing all this trouble in order to keep anenomes powers a secet? Didn't the fate of an entire kingdom matter more than hiding animus powers? Before, it had been an easier decision for Tsunami to make, but now there was so much more at stake than just her freinds. Before she had felt it would be selfish to expose Anemones powers in order to heal her friends, but now the safety and well being of two whole tribes were on the line. Now, was she being selfish by hiding her sister when she could save so many from danger?

Tsunami groaned and held her head in her talons. What was she supposed to do? Obviously, the others wanted her to contact her mother, tell Queen Coral what had happened, and ask for help.

But it wasn't that simple! Anemone's powers were dangerous, and the more she used them, the more dangerous they became. Besides, one of the few things keeping her, and her family safe, was that her powers were mostly unknown. But if she magically healed Glory, then everyone would know about them, and who knew what might happen then?

And what if healing Glory was the tipping point? What if it made Anemone into a monster? What if, in the act of healing Glory, Anemone became like her eldest sister, Orca, a dragon so heartless she killed dragonets before they were even born?

Tsunami grit her teeth as the mental image crossed her mind, of the shattered little body of one of her siblings. A tiny, innocent dragonet, who's life had been snuffed out before it could even begin. Tsunami never wanted any of that to happen again.

But she also wanted to save Starflight, and to make Glory be herself again. It was her decision to make, but there was so much at stake on both sides, she didn't know what to do.

She felt a tolon on her shoulder, and opened her eyes to see Clay looking at her with concern.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.

Tsunami sighed and shook her head.

"No. far from it, actually."

Clay gave her what she assumed was an attempt at a reassuring smile, but the worry caused it to falter on his face.

"Don't worry Tsunami." he said, "we can work through this

She shrugged, nodding.

"Yeah, I guess so. There isn't much else we can do anyway."

"Who's going to tell Grandeur and Deathbringer?" asked Sunny, limping over to glory.

All eyes went to Clay, who had just been leaning down to help Tsunami stand up.

"Me?" he asked, looking back at them.

Pallor shrugged.

"I could do it. But I'm not sure where they're at, I don't know my way around this kingdom. Also, I need to check up on starflight again."

Clay looked down at Tsunami.

"But I don't want to tell them the bad news." he said.

Tsunami shrugged, and motioned for him to help her up. Clay pulled her up, and she leaned on him for a moment as she steadied herself.

"Well, I'm sorry, but it looks like you'll have to." she said. "You know where the royal tree house is, and the nightwing village. They're at one of those two spots. Just go and tell Deathbringer, quietly. He can fill Grandeur in later."

"I'm kind of surprised their not back yet." said sunny, "I hope they're okay."

Tsunami shrugged, and pushed herself away from clay.

"I'm sure they're fine. Hurry clay, we may need your help back here."

Clay sighed, and nodded. He turned, and walked out the door.

As he left, Glory watched him leave. After a moment, she turned and started walking toward the door.

"Woah woah woah, not so fast." said Tsunami, blocking the doorway. Glory stopped, and looked at her, confused. She still said nothing, but cocked her head to the side in bewilderment.

"Im sorry, but you can't go running all over the rainforest in this condition." said Tsunami

"It's alright, let her go outside," called Pallor, "it's okay for her to get a little sunshine."

"But we can't let her walk away," said Tsunami, "who knows what trouble she can get into. And besides, everyone is going to see her. They'll know what's happened."

Pallor shrugged.

"You can't stop that. The whole world will know, if not today then tomorrow, or the next day. You wont keep this a secret. Besides, maybe if she's outside, something might trip her memory."

"Really?!" asked Sunny, limping over to Tsunami and Glory, "could that really happen?"

Pallor shrugged, and turned back to his work.

"Maybe. Highly unlikely, but maybe."

Tsunami looked at Sunny, then Glory. She sighed, and stepped out of the way.

"Fine, but don't let her go down the boardwalk." she turned to the four guards outside the door. "You hear that? Don't let her leave this platform."

All four rainwing guards nodded vigorously, and nervously watched as their queen stepped outside.

Glory reacted to the world as if she had never seen it before. She turned in circles, looking at the tree tops around her, the brightly flowers hanging from the vines, and jumping in surprise as a flock of parrots flew past in a cloud of blinding colors and deafening racket. Mixtures of blues, greens, reds and yellows faded in and out of hers scales, as if the colors were out of control. It hurt Tsunami to see glory acting so strangely, she couldn't bear to watch. She turned away, leaving Sunny to watch the rainwing at the door.

Pallor had made his way over to Starflight, who hadn't said anything the whole time. The blind nightwing had shifted to be lying on his side, and was breathing laboriously, as if each breath was a struggle. His scales were an unnaturally lighter color, making him look more grey than black. He was awake, but barely so. Put simply, he looked awful.

"How are you doing?" asked Pallor, leaning over to check the infected area. The wound was still inflamed, and oozing. Pallor winced at the sight, then turned to his canvas bags. He began digging for fresh bandages and more of the healing paste.

"Im tired." murmured Starflight. "And I'm thirsty."

Sunny looked over at them from the doorway.

"I can go and get some water for him." she said.

But Pallor was shaking his head. He pulled a canteen from one of the pouches, and offered it to Starflight, who weakly began to drink.

"I'll go get it, or have Clay get some if he's back in time."

Sunny left the doorway, and came back across the infirmary to stand beside Pallor and Starflight.

"How is he?" she asked.

Pallor shrugged.

"Pretty bad, to be honest. But it's not the worst. I've seen infections with dragons running fevers so high that they were shaking and screaming deliriously. And most of them survived, so, there's still hope. Don't get too worried, I think he can pull through, but it will be a fight."

"It already has been a fight." said Tsunami, who looked briefly out the door to check on glory. At this moment, she wasn't sure who she should have been more worried about.

"I know." sighed Pallor, "but I'll keep doing what i can."

The sandwing medic began to clean the injury again, following the same routine as before.

Starflight weakly cried out, and squirmed as pressure was applied to the injury. Tsunami didn't want to see this either, and between Glory and Starflight, she wasn't sure where to look.

She settled on looking out of the window, and waiting for it to be over. She tried to ignore the sounds of Starflights pain, and Sunny trying to make him feel better. She instead, focused on the horizon through a gap in the tree foliage. To her surprise, the sun was going down, sending radiant orange light across the treetops.

Was it really sunset already? She hadn't felt that time had gone that fast, but night was only a few minutes away. Had she really been so oblivious to the passing hours? She shook her head, amazed at how fast things could change, especially when she wasn't paying attention.

It only took a few minutes more, before Pallor was finished. Starflights injury was clean, and he had a fresh bandage. The blind nightwing was partially curled into a ball, trying to hold his inflamed abdomen and make the pain stop.

"There, it's all done," said Sunny, "you'll be feeling better in a little bit." she said.

Tsunami saw Pallor in her peripheral vision. The sandwing medic was shaking his head slightly as he reorganized one of his pouches, like he was talking to himself in his mind. The expression on his face worried her.

"Im so tired." murmured Starflight, his voice sounding dazed, "I feel so sick. But im so tired."

"It's okay Starflight." said Sunny, "Just … try to sleep. You'll feel better in the morning."

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Deathbringer crept through the darkness. He was absolutely silent as he followed the boardwalks toward the infirmary, no more than a shadow moving through its natural habitat. Deathbringer wasn't trying to sneak up on anybody, but after years of training and assassination work, stealth was his habit.

He peered in through the door and looked around. The infirmary was mostly empty. His eyes scanned the beds, first picking out Sunny, then Starflight. Both were asleep. But Glory wasn't there.

His breath hitched, and he stepped inside. For a brief second, he panicked, afraid she was gone.

But then he saw her standing by the window. Glory sat with her talons on the windowsill, gazing off into the night. Her scales were silver, reflecting the pale moonlight that shone brilliantly through the opening. She was silent, and motionless. Deathbringer thought she resembled a beautiful statue.

"Glory," he whispered, stepping into the infirmary. His voice was soft, but in the oddly quiet rainforest night it seemed to echo through the room. Glory turned to face him, watching silently as he approached. Deathbringer stepped into the beam of moonlight, no more than an arm's length from her. She watched his movements, eyes never still. They were standing together in the light, so close he was sure she could hear his heartbeat. The pulse thundered in his ears. He was nervous, it was as if he was meeting her for the first time. He didn't know what to expect. How would she respond? She was different now.

"Glory," he whispered, "it's me, Deathbringer. Do you recognize me?"

She said nothing. Glory cocked her head, looking at him sideways. She was curious. Maybe she was trying to say something? "I'm not sure what to say," he said, feeling awkward, "I don't know how to talk to you. Can you hear me? Can you talk to me?"

Glory still said nothing. The tips of her wings began to turn blue, but she showed no other sign of comprehension.

"I have heard about injuries like this." he said, "injuries that change a dragon. They wake up, and they're not the same. They have a different personality, or they can't remember who they were. Some were blind, or couldn't walk. But, I've never heard of something like this."

She still didn't respond. Her ears were perked, her eyes were wide. She was listening, attentive and curious. But she wasn't comprehending.

"There has to be some way to help you." he said, "some cure, or something

Don't you remember anything?" He asked, "what about Tsunami, Sunny, Clay? Don't you remember them? You became queen of two tribes, surely you remember that." Glory's ruff began to change colors, going from silver to green. "You're a famous dragon, your name is known all over the world. Don't you remember saving the world? Isn't that too big to forget?" She blinked. Still no response. Deathbringer's tone fell. "Don't you remember me?" He asked. There was nothing but silence between them. He bowed his head and let out a huge breath he had been holding. He wiped his eyes with a talon, covering his face with it.

"Please Glory," he whispered, "come back to us. We need you, I need you. Please," he said, ''I know you're in there, somewhere. Please come back."

Silence answered him. He felt a tear prickle the corner of his eye. He was trying to comprehend this, but he couldn't wrap his mind around it. How could she be gone? Glory was gone, and yet she was right here in front of him. How was he going to keep going? After he had met her, so much of his life had become about Glory. She was the perfect one, his soulmate. He knew that there would never be another who would make his life as complete as she had. It was as if a part of him was gone.

Then Deathbringer felt her talon on his face. He opened his eyes and lifted his head.

Glory reached out, and touched him with her other talon. She rested both talons gently against his scales, an almost intimate touch. Deathbringer held his breath as she leaned in, her eyes never leaving his. She was so close, his heart began to hammer in his chest. She looked deep into his eyes, and he into hers. He shivered, and hope sparked through him. Was that recognition he saw in her face? Was glory in there, fighting her way to the surface?

But then she looked away. Deathbringer felt his hopes crash as she pulled her talons away from him. She turned and walked to the door, never looking back. She stepped out into the night, looked up at the sky, and walked away. Deathbringer didn't follow her. She was gone, both literally and metaphorically. Deathbringer hung his head and cried, because he knew then that the Glory who had once been would never be seen again.

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**Okay, thats the end. Edit: of this chapter! I think i may have confused some people. I was a little worried that i had the characters being a little lacadaysical about glorys condition, but i kind of wanted to save that moment for her and deathbringer.**

**Remember when i said i don't like romance?**

**I still don't.**

**But, do you think i did a good job at capturing the moment between them? Let me know, and be honest.**

**I have a request! To everyone reading this, who havn't commented, and i can see there are a lot of you, i would like to ask a favor. Next chapter, when the story is finish, please leave a review telling me what you think. It dosent have to be long and complicated. But, i would appreciate if you would leave your thoughts. I want to know, what did you like? What did you not like? What should i have done better, should i have portrayed things differently? Please be honest, im not looking for a bunch of compliments, i want to improve my writing, and practice can only get me so far. I want to hear a little feedback. Please consider, thanks!**

**(i know all ya'll regulars will let me know.)**

**Also, would ya'll be interested if i wrote another story? I promise it wouldn't be nearly as dark, although it will be full of suspense, and i dunno, angst? I dunno what agnst really means. But it would be the story of what happened to shales daughter. Just pitching the idea.**

**-Donhp: I read your latest chapter, and left a very lengthy reveiw. However, I dont think it went through. I think you summed it up well, these characters have no control of whats happening around them.**

**-cricketsundew: английский мой первый язык, но я хотел бы узнать больше. проблема в том, что я очень плохой ученик, и я знаю только одну фразу на русском.**

**Nah, im joking. I dont see how the question has the potential to be offensive, but then again, im not easily offended. I wish i could speak another language, but i flunked in spanish pretty badly. I have taken many english classes, because they were required by the school curriculim. But, combing the fact that they taught nothing but poetry and argumenitive essays, and the fact that i am a terrible student, i never picked up on the whole grammer thing. But hey, what do ya expect from someone with the IQ of a fencepost?**

**-queenglorythefirst: i dunno, i guess you're right. (don't you just love how i respond to a review as if we're in the middle of a conversation?) i just remembered that scarlet was smaller, and i think thorn was too. Basically, i just went with what i see in nature, where the male tends to be bigger than the female.**

**I do think deathbringer would do fine, but i also think that he really dosent want to take that role.**

**-applepi: judo, huh? I prefer Krav-Maga. Also, before you told me, i had already guessed your age. (PHSYCIC!)**

**-a burned hand: wow, so many people have attempted to barbequ themselves. Since i am hearing so much about this, i just want to let everyone know that im fine. It's flattering that ya'll wanna give advice and help someone you have never met, and will never see in person (probably). I burned my hand when it got in the way of a backdraft, taking all the hair off my arm. I had to sleep with my arm in a pot of ice water that night, and by the next morning the skin was turning grey and falling off. (no, i didn't go to the doctor. I ain't got money fer dat.)**

**But, everything is good now. You almost cant see where the injury was, although the area appears to be more sensitive to sunburn.**

**-apple the allwing and also lmao: i assume you two are applepi and a burned hand, from earlier.**


	17. Chapter17

**Alrighty, last one. Im sorry about the line breaks, for some reason it appears i can no longer use line breaks. Instead, i have to use a bunch of dashed lines, which sometimes disappear when i upload.**

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Sunny woke up slowly in the warm rainforest morning. Her burns weren't hurting as badly right now, and so she chose to lay still for a while to avoid disturbing her injuries.

The sun rose slowly, and after a while a beam of warm golden light peered through the windows. At first the light was pleasantly warm, but after a while it began to bother her. The sun's beams shone through her eyelids, making her see red. She finally decided to open her eyes.

Sunny held out her wing to shield herself from the morning beams. She blinked the light spots out of her vision before looking around.

On either side of her, Clay and Tsunami were asleep on the floor. Clay was on his side, breathing deeply. His face was creased with a worried expression, and every now and then his talons would twitch nervously. Tsunami slept on her belly. Her breaths were shallower, and more painful sounding. She wasn't sleeping as deeply as Clay, and occasionally her breaths would hitch in a painful sound.

Sunny sighed, and shifted quietly. She yawned, and looked over at Starflight.

Starflight was still on his cot, lying in the same position he was last night. Sunny noticed that the painful grimace appeared to have left his face, like he had relaxed. She hoped he was feeling better, she couldn't imagine how painful that infection was. She watched his still form for several minutes, noting that he appeared very relaxed, compared to yesterday. He was unmoving, and still.

Too still. Sunny's brow creased in worry. She studied the nightwing, but saw no sign of movement. His chest was motionless. She couldn't hear him breathing.

Sunny quietly slipped off her cot, careful to not disturb her injuries or to wake Clay and Tsunami. With her injured arm tucked close to her chest, she made her way to Starflights cot.

As she approached, Sunny's worry grew. She watched closely for any sign of breathing, but she didn't see any.

"Starflight?" she whispered, "are you alright?" she sat down and held out her good talon, reaching out to touch his forehead. "Please be alright," she whispered. Sunny touched his forehead, gently taking his temperature. The night before, poor starflight had been burning up, his fever had made him almost too hot to touch.

But sunny didn't feel any sickly heat. Her talons rested on cold scales. Starflight was as cold as the night breeze, his scales as lifeless as granite. Sunny gasped, and drew her talon away. For a second, she was motionless, in shock. Then she screamed.

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Tsunami was jolted awake as she heard Sunny scream. The sound brought a flashback of Scarlit, the tunnels, Fatespeaker, and being pinned as her stripes were cut from her body. Tsunami leapt to her feet, staggering in confusion as her mind scrambled to figure out what was happening. It took her several seconds to remember where she was, and to see what was going on.

"Clay!" screamed Sunny, "Clay! Go get Pallor, now!"

Clay blinked in confusion for a moment, then he turned and thundered out the door.

"Sunny! What's going on, what's happening?" asked Tsunami. Sunny had taken several steps back, and was staring at starflight. She had started to shake, and didn't answer Tsunami. Her wide, terrified eyes never left Starflights unmoving form.

Tsunami came across the aisle, and put her talon on Sunny's shoulder. "What's wrong Sunny?" she asked, her voice now much quieter. Sunny reacted to the touch as if she had been slapped. She jerked away, and spun to look at Tsunami, before she realized who it was.

"What's wrong?" Tsunami asked again.

"It's Starflight," said sunny, "he's cold, he's … he's …" she trailed off, at a loss for words. Tsunami reached out and pulled Sunny close. The little sandwing was on the verge of tears.

"Don't worry," she whispered, "I'm sure he's okay, he'll be alright."

Tsunami could feel Sunny shivering, and she began to feel worry build up inside her. What if Starflight wasn't alright? What if he wasn't going to be okay? Tsunami didn't look at him, afraid of what she might see.

Outside of the infirmary, rainwings aroused by the noise peeked out of their hammocks and peered over the edges of their sleeping platforms. Several edged out of the trees, fluttered from the branches and climbed onto the boardwalk, trying to get a closer look. They spoke nervously to each other in low tones as they watched the seawing try to comfort the sandwing. There was a tense, uneasy quiet for several minutes in the early morning sunshine.

Then came a disturbance in the trees, two dragons pounding down the boardwalk.

Pallor came charging into the infirmary, pushing aside several onlookers with his wings. A few seconds later clay thundered in after him, out of breath from the run through the treetops.

"Step aside, let me through," said Pallor, gesturing to Tsunami and Sunny to step back. He threw down his canvas bag, causing it to spill it's contents, and set to checking Starflights vitals.

Clay came up to stand beside Tsunami, open-mouthed and panting. Together they stood, wide eyed and fearful as Pallor did his work.

"Please be okay, please be okay," Sunny whispered. Her bandaged talon began to shake uncontrollably.

It was very quiet for several seconds, very tense as they waited for Pallors verdict. Finally, Pallor sighed and stepped back. He turned to face them, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry." said the medic, "he's gone."

Tsunami took a step back. It took her mind several seconds to realize what he had said.

"Gone?" she said, "but … how?"

Pallor sighed, and began to pack up his bag.

"From infection. The injury was deep, and was never properly cleaned until it was too late. The infection spread through his body, poisoning him. I'm sorry, but there was nothing more I could do for him."

Tsunami felt dizzy, and had to sit down. She couldn't believe what was happening, how could Starflight be dead?

Beside her, Sunny began to cry. She held her head in her talons and wept uncontrollably. Tsunami knew that she was seconds from joining her. She felt tears stinging her eyes as she looked at Clay.

Clay already had tears streaming down his face. He was shaking his head, like he refused to believe it was true. After a second of denial, he turned and ran out of the infirmary.

"Clay!" Tsunami yelled, but he was gone. She looked back at sunny, who hadn't moved at all. She didn't know what to do. Sunny needed someone to be with her, but so did Clay. The mudwing had been blaming himself for everything that had happened, who knew what he was going to do now? Tsunami decided that she had to follow Clay, before he did something disastrous. "I'll be back," she said to Sunny. The little sandwing didn't respond. Tsunami pushed herself to her feet and left the infirmary.

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Following Clay wasn't very hard. There was a hole torn through the vegetation, leading towards the ground. Tsunami knew that Clay would have headed for the ground, it was easier to travel on foot than to fly through the trees.

Tsunami glided through the branches and salvaged a rough landing. She grit her teeth as her injured ribs flared in protest, and waited a moment for the pain to subside.

She began to stumble through the loam, following the broad footprints that were unmistakably Clay's. She couldn't travel nearly as fast as he had, and after several minutes she began to wonder if she would ever catch up.

Finally, after covering a lot of distance, Tsunami heard something crashing and thudding up ahead. She picked up her pace until she rounded the gnarled roots of a huge tree, and found herself on the edge of a clearing. She stopped, and watched something she had never thought she would ever see.

It was Clay. He was roaring, screaming, crying. He tore out plants by their roots, viciously clawed the bark from trees, set the vegetation on fire and then stomped out the flames in helpless frustration. He was hitting himself, and bashing his head against trees, like he was trying to hurt himself. Like he was trying to punish himself.

Clay was angry at himself, and he didn't know how to handle it. Clay had never been angry, or so full of visible guilt and sorrow, not like this. And it scared Tsunami to watch as sweet, kind, lovable Clay, tore apart the forest around him.

After a long, long time, Clay finally stopped. He fell on his side, breathing hard and crying. Tears flowed unchecked as he sobbed, and covered his head with his arms.

Tsunami slowly approached him, as if worried he might snap again and tear her apart the way he had the clearing. When she was a tail length away from him, she stopped.

"Clay?" she said.

He jumped, startled. He uncovered his eyes and looked up at her. They stared at each other for a minute, unsure of what to do.

"I'm sorry." choked Clay, "I'm sorry Tsunami. I … I let you down. I let you all down."

Tsunami sat down. She opened her wings and held out her arms.

"Come here." She said.

Clay stood, still covered in dirt from his rampage. He slowly approached her, then wrapped her in a hug.

Tsunamis injured ribs flared in pain, but she ignored it. She wrapped her arms around him, and let him hold her.

Clay's big frame began to shake. He cried unashamedly for several minutes. Tsunami did too. She cried for Fatespeaker, for Starflight, and for Glory. She wept for Sunny, for her own missing scales, and for Clay. And she mourned for all of them, because she knew that they would never be the same again.

Clay eventually calmed down enough to talk. He sniffed, and cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry." He said again, "I'm sorry for everything, I'm sorry I didn't try hard enough."

Tsunami looked him in the eyes, and said,

"Clay, stop it. Stop it right now. It's not your fault, alright? You're not the one that killed them, you didn't hurt any of us. None of that was your fault, Scarlet did that."

"I let it happen." he said, "I didn't try hard enough, I let her hurt you. If I had tried harder, then maybe Starflight would still be alive. Maybe Fatespeaker would too, maybe Glory would still be … Glory."

Tsunami shook her head.

"Clay, you did what you could."

"Which wasn't enough." he said.

"No!" Tsunami barked. "Listen to me clay, if it hadn't been for you, we would still be in there. Sunny would have been tortured to death, then me, then Starflight and Glory. You saved us! Why can't you understand that? How is that so hard for you to understand?"

Clay looked away from her.

"Because …. I feel like I could have done more. I could have thought harder, I could have run faster. Maybe I could have saved-"

"Stop." said Tsunami, "Clay, there was nothing more you could do. You did your best, and it was enough. Clay, you were taking on four adult skywings. You are still an adolescent. You didn't know the tunnels, all the odds were stacked against you, but you succeeded. You beat Scarlet, and you saved us."

"But you're the one who killed Scarlet," said Clay. Tsunami shook her head.

"Only because of you, Clay. I wouldn't have stood a chance against her if it wasn't for you."

Clay looked like he was going to argue, but he stayed quiet. He sniffed and rubbed his eyes.

They heard small footsteps, and turned to see Sunny entering the clearing.

"Clay, Tsunami?" she called, "are you alright?"

Tsunami sighed, and shrugged.

"I … dont know." she said.

Sunny limped over to them, and looked around the clearing.

"When you ran away, I was afraid something bad was going to happen."

She shivered and let out a shaky breath. Her eyes were red and puffy, her face was tearstained. She looked at Clay. "It's really not your fault, Clay," she said, "Scarlet wanted you to think that. But it's not."

Clay looked at his talons and scuffed the dirt. He didn't look convinced. Sunny sighed, and sat down, resting her injured leg. "I talked to Glory." she said, "before she was knocked unconscious. I believed that it was my fault that we were there, that I was the reason Scarlet caught us." she said. Tsunami and Clay listened, stepping closer to hear her. Sunny was looking at the dirt between her talons, talking quietly. "Glory told me that it wasn't my fault. I didn't believe her. I was … selfish, I guess. I wanted to blame myself for everything that happened, for making all of you go on that trip. But Glory told me something that I hadn't thought of. Scarlet was going to come back sometime. There was no way we could prevent that. So it wasn't my fault that we were captured."

She looked up at them. "Do either of you think it was my fault?" she asked.

"No," said Clay, "of course not, Sunny."

She nodded.

"If it wasn't my fault that Scarlet caught us, then how is it your fault for what happened to us?" she looked both of them in the eye, first Tsunami, then Clay. "Ever since we got away, both of you have been blaming yourself for things that aren't your fault. Tsunami, you are angry with yourself for giving up. You say that you laid down and let us be dragged to our fates. Clay, you believe that you betrayed us by not trying harder. But nothing could be further from the truth."

She took a large, shaky breath.

"I feel really weird for saying this. But The fact is, you couldn't save Fatespeaker. You couldn't save Starflight, or Glory. There was nothing more you could do. But … I think that this was the best outcome we could get. Starflight and fatespeaker are gone. Glory may never be herself again. But can you imagine what would have happened if Scarlet had come some other time? What if she had taken either of you when you left to see your families?"

Clay and tsunami looked at each other.

"If that had happened …. None of us would have made it." said Tsunami. Sunny nodded.

"At least we were there for each other. We were there to help each other, even if we couldn't have succeeded, we were together."

Sunny sniffed.

"Another thing," she said, "the last thing I remember Glory telling me, was to never lose hope. But I never lose hope, it's who I am. Clay, you think you didn't try. But that's not true, because you always try. Tsunami, you think you gave up. But you never give up. Why would it have been any different in those tunnels?"

Tsunami and Clay looked at each other. She had a point. Tsunami had never thought of it like that, but sunny was right. She never gave up, so why would it have been different then?

"Thank you sunny. We needed to hear that." Said tsunami. She wiped her eyes, but the tears were a long way from stopping. Beside her, clay wrapped one wing tightly around her shoulder. He held the other out, beckoning to sunny. She came, and Clay wrapped them up into a group hug. They were quiet for some time, each one thinking about their lost friends, and their new life as the remaining dragonets of destiny.

"I'm going to miss them." Said clay, "I already do."

Tsunami nodded.

"We all will. But, at least we still have each other, right? We can take care of ourselves."

"We'll be okay." Said sunny, "I know we will. I'm going to miss Fatespeakers cheerfulness, Starflights kindness."

"And it won't be the same without Glory's smart remarks." Said Tsunami.

"None of us will be the same." Said Clay. Sunny nodded.

"Maybe." She said, "but I know one thing that will never change. I will never lose hope. Because there is still hope for us, for Glory, and for this kingdom."

"And I will never give up." Said Tsunami, "as long as I am on this side of the grave, I will not stop fighting for us."

"And I will always try my hardest." said Clay, "I promise that I will always do my best to take care of us, no matter what happens." ———————————————————————————————

**Please please please review and tell me what you thought. Im trying to get better at writing, so please tell what i should have done better and what i should keep working on.**

**Im debating if I should really go back and do too much editing on this. Due to the lack of updates, this story will now fade away into obscurity as it is buried by new stories. Kinda sad when i think about it really, i put a lot of time into this piece. That being said, i guess I'm also happy with how it ended up, and am glad to have shared it. In fact, it almost gets addicting, but that's probably because I'm starving for feedback on my work. Or I'm desperate for attention, you make the call, but it really makes my day to read what people think about my work (yes, even if you didn't like it, i want to hear your thoughts).**

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. I wish I could shake your hand or something, but i guess that we will never meet each other in person. So, ill just settle for telling you thanks again.**

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**Cricket sundew- basically, it says ive always spoken english, but wish i could speak another language. The only thing i can say in russian, other than yes and no, is "I don't understand russian." That phrase came in handy while i was there. What suprised me was when i was sitting at a table, eating lunch, a little girl came up to me and started talking to me. All i could do was shake my head, and say, "ya kne pani mayo ruski".**

**She looked at me sideways, then ran back to her parents. A few minutes later, she came back up to me, and in perfect english, said, "hello, how are you doing today?"**

**She was about eight or nine years old. I really liked those people, i wish i could go back some time.**

**Sorry about that, i didnt mean to tell a story about my travels.**

**Also, no, glory is not dead. Im sorry that I may have confused you.**

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**Donhp- that is a really interesting idea, and i have thought about writing it. I would probably have fun writing that scene too. But, this is what i had, and i guess i liked this better, you know, cause of the whole magical healing thing.**

**Also, yes, it is weird to me as well that the story has ended. I believe that this ending leaves a lot of room for a whole new story to emerge, one that i dont plan to write. I think it would be interesting to show the remaining dragonets trying to move on and adjust to the new normal. Heck, if someone else decided to write something like that, i would be first in line to read it.**

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**Queenglorythefirst- Ah, so thats what angst is. Good to know. I just want to thank you again for being the very first reviewer to this story, you really are the reason it made it past chapter one. And, because of your interest, i will look into writing another story. I would plan for it to maybe be a little shorter than this, and to have a lighter tone. Id have to write out a few of the important scenes, and see if i can get the idea to work. I have two different title ideas, but im not impressed with them. I should also look at continuing my original stories. Ive neglected them, and my siblings are wanting me to write more so they can read more. But, ill give it a try. It will probably be a while before it is out, but i will try to make it happen. I swear. :)**

**Also, im sure you would be an awsome beta reader, even if im not sure how that whole process works. Heavens knows i cant grammar, and a second set of eyes on a piece of writing would be a definite step up in my quality. **

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**Deatbringer rip- gdksoxbrkaisbfldkznfndkakdnfjehcytwowpqlcbfjeodndkdkdj!!**

**How dare I? Oh, I dare. :)**

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**Appletheallwing- interesting name, gotta admit. Yes, you hit the nail on the head. Im not sure if braincells are the proper name for what happened, but yes. I just thought to myself, "how would the dragonets react if glory, the strong willed, sarcastic, businesslike rainwing queen, suddenly went silent, and lost her personality traits?"**

**So, i made her silent, and curious. I think that is something that no one has tried before, and i wish i had the patience to maybe pursue that idea farther, because that idea has some potential. **

**Dragonflame- well, thank you for your kindess and willingness to help others. And thank you for reading too.**

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**Blackberryavar: just keep doing what your doing. The way you review is very helpful, you point out things i hadnt thought off.**

**So that conversation was cliche? Alright, i dont know how i would fix it, or if its even worth going back to fix it at this point, but i will keep that in mind as i go forward and write more dialouge.**

**Also that part with the nightwings. Im assuming that what i did wrong was that i didnt specify that deathbringer went away with granduer, to some other place to meet the nightwings. I think i was too focused on showing the others, i didnt consider that meeting to be important for the story. To be honest, i had deathbringer leave to talk with them for two reasons:**

**1: because I assumed that if the nightwings had just learned what was going on, they would demand to know more about what was happening, and would want to have a say in what was happening in the potential future.**

**2: the most important reason, and it wasn't because of what i figured was a logical situation. I did it just to set up the scene at the end. I really wanted to write that scene, but it required deathbringer to enter the situation a certain way. **

**So yeah, that was my bad. I should have written that a little differently.**

**I'll finish reading green horn tonight. Ill see ya then.**


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